1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,760 Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. 2 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:12,680 This week we are continuing our sermon series on the heroes of faith and we're looking 3 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:17,040 at the second woman in this list of heroes and that is Rahab. 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,080 Rahab is often thought of as an outsider. 5 00:00:20,080 --> 00:00:23,120 She's a woman in a society where women weren't valued. 6 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,200 She is outside of the family of Israel. 7 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:28,280 She's a Canaanite woman. 8 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:32,280 And she's also a prostitute, someone who is often marginalized by society. 9 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:37,320 But Rahab is going to teach us about how her faith shows up in some surprising ways and 10 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:43,440 has some challenges for our faith as well. 11 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:50,920 Our first reading is from the book of Joshua, chapter two, beginning at the first verse. 12 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:57,120 Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Shittim. 13 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:01,100 Go look over the land, he said, especially Jericho. 14 00:01:01,100 --> 00:01:08,360 So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. 15 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:15,160 The king of Jericho was told, look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy 16 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:17,360 out the land. 17 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:21,920 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab. 18 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:27,920 Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy 19 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:30,840 out the whole land. 20 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,560 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. 21 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:41,240 She said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 22 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:45,120 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. 23 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,440 I don't know which way they went. 24 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:48,560 Go after them quickly. 25 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:51,440 You may catch up with them. 26 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:57,080 But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under stalks of flax she had laid 27 00:01:57,080 --> 00:01:59,420 out on the roof. 28 00:01:59,420 --> 00:02:05,080 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the 29 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:06,440 Jordan. 30 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:12,120 And as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. 31 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:18,200 Before the spies laid down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, 32 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:25,360 I know the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, 33 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:31,520 so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 34 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:36,600 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of 35 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:43,960 Egypt and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, 36 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:47,180 whom you completely destroyed. 37 00:02:47,180 --> 00:02:49,200 We heard of it. 38 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:55,400 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because 39 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:56,840 of you. 40 00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:03,520 For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below. 41 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:10,280 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because 42 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,440 I have shown kindness to you. 43 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:20,040 Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers 44 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:28,080 and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death. 45 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,620 Our lives for your lives, the men assured her. 46 00:03:31,620 --> 00:03:37,120 If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord 47 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:39,720 gives us the land. 48 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:45,940 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part 49 00:03:45,940 --> 00:03:49,440 of the city wall. 50 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:57,420 Our second reading is from Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at the 30th verse. 51 00:03:57,420 --> 00:04:04,040 By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after the army had marched around them for seven 52 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:05,640 days. 53 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:13,120 By faith, the prostitute Rahab, because she had welcomed the spies, was not killed with 54 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:16,080 those who were disobedient. 55 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:18,960 This is the word of the Lord. 56 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:28,240 Look the most famous newspaper reporter in all of Metropolis is of course, Lois Lane. 57 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:29,240 Lois Lane. 58 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:33,040 But you see Lois is always getting herself into trouble, right? 59 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,180 She's sniffing out a story. 60 00:04:35,180 --> 00:04:39,400 She's getting too close to something that Lex Luthor is doing, and pretty soon she's 61 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:41,080 in real hot water. 62 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:46,600 She finds herself dangling from a helicopter, or she's falling from an airplane, or she's 63 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:49,240 tied up on the roof of a skyscraper. 64 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:51,880 Oh no, Lois, what are you going to do? 65 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:53,360 Who is going to save you? 66 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:55,720 But wait, look, what's that? 67 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:57,280 It's a bird. 68 00:04:57,280 --> 00:04:59,320 No, it's a plane. 69 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:01,600 No, it's Superman. 70 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:04,920 And yes, Superman comes flying in and sweeping in. 71 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:07,160 He's the white knight to the rescue. 72 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:13,040 And he comes in, and just the nick of time, he catches Lois and carries her to safety. 73 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:17,520 You remember the Superman movie where he's like, I've got you. 74 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:21,040 And she's like, you've got me, but who's got you? 75 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:22,040 Right? 76 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:23,880 It's just like, oh, it's so wonderful. 77 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:24,880 So wonderful. 78 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:32,160 But listen, the question I want to ask is, why is Lois Lane always needing saving? 79 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:33,160 Right? 80 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:35,720 It's the old trope, right? 81 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:39,280 The damsel in distress, right? 82 00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:45,760 And whether it's the comics or whether it's the movies or the TV shows, it's often true 83 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:53,040 that men are the heroes and the women are the damsels in distress. 84 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:56,880 But what happens when we flip that script? 85 00:05:56,880 --> 00:06:04,400 And what happens when the woman in the story becomes the hero of the story? 86 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:09,800 Ah, well, I'm glad you asked because today is week eight of our teaching series, which 87 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:11,080 is called Heroes of Faith. 88 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:16,280 We've been looking in chapter 11 of this book in the Bible called the Book of Hebrews, where 89 00:06:16,280 --> 00:06:20,920 a list of all these people who lived by faith and demonstrated wonderful faith in their 90 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,000 lives are commended for what they did. 91 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:28,640 And in that list in Hebrews 11, you've probably noticed, just like I've noticed, that there's 92 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:34,560 16 plus names there, but only two of them are women. 93 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,960 And that raises an important question or two questions maybe we should talk about this 94 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:39,960 morning. 95 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:48,240 And that is, why are women's stories kind of underrepresented or overshadowed in biblical 96 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:49,240 history? 97 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:55,480 Now, there could be a couple of reasons for that, but one answer surely has to be this, 98 00:06:55,480 --> 00:07:01,960 is that the Bible was written in a deeply patriarchal society. 99 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:05,000 I mean, that's just the way that it was, right? 100 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:10,520 The people who had the power, the people who wrote the books of the Bible were men. 101 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:15,040 And so it's true that since everything kind of came from that male perspective, it was 102 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:20,080 very rare that a woman got to be the hero of a story. 103 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:22,540 And it's not because women weren't heroic. 104 00:07:22,540 --> 00:07:29,700 It's just because in that world, many stories of women just got downplayed, or maybe they 105 00:07:29,700 --> 00:07:33,160 never got written down at all. 106 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:39,120 But another question to kind of think about is, okay, so that we have maybe some kind 107 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:47,420 of a silence of women in the Bible, but what about the sidelining of women in the church? 108 00:07:47,420 --> 00:07:55,400 Because over the centuries, many churches kept reinforcing this idea where men's voices 109 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:59,280 get priority over women's voices. 110 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:03,560 And in many churches today even, and I'm really grateful that I don't think this is true of 111 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:07,920 Trinity, but in many churches today, the men still get to be the heroes. 112 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:09,760 The men get to be the ones who lead. 113 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:11,640 The men get to be the ones who make all the decisions. 114 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:15,400 The men get to be the only ones who get to take to the platform and teach and that sort 115 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:16,880 of stuff. 116 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:22,800 And for that reason, I am really glad for this story we're going to be studying today. 117 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:29,840 As a father of four girls, I'm really glad for the story that we've read today because 118 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:37,200 here, even though the Bible does not record as many stories of female heroes, that doesn't 119 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:39,880 mean that those stories aren't there. 120 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:44,320 It just means that we got to search for them a bit and we've got to reclaim their voices 121 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:51,260 and we've got to tell their stories even if that makes us a little bit uncomfortable. 122 00:08:51,260 --> 00:08:57,840 So today we are looking at Rahab, one of the women in the Bible who does not wait around 123 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:01,480 for Superman to come in and save her. 124 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:03,660 Instead, she trusts God. 125 00:09:03,660 --> 00:09:06,600 She takes things into her own hands in a way. 126 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:08,220 She becomes the master of her own faith. 127 00:09:08,220 --> 00:09:12,760 She flips the script and she becomes a hero of faith. 128 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:16,480 She becomes the one who is doing the rescuing. 129 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:17,480 It's a great story. 130 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:22,640 I would invite you, if you got the sermon notes today, to grab them and follow along. 131 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:27,320 And if you're watching at home, you can access those sermon notes by going to our website, 132 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:31,960 go to the tab that says Sundays at Trinity and you can find them there. 133 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:34,600 But let's start with this. 134 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:41,360 It is actually true that Rahab was a damsel in distress. 135 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:48,680 But it is also true that just about everybody in her community was in distress at that time. 136 00:09:48,680 --> 00:09:51,320 That's because war was coming, right? 137 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:52,320 You heard the reading. 138 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:57,640 Israel was planning on crossing over the Jordan River, moving in and doing battle with all 139 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:00,600 sorts of people in the promised land in Canaan. 140 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:04,600 And Jericho was like number one on their hit list. 141 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:10,720 And Rahab even says everybody's hearts are melting in fear because of this war that is 142 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:11,720 coming. 143 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:13,120 So yes, these were difficult times. 144 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:15,280 These were difficult times for everyone. 145 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:20,800 Everyone was in distress, but Rahab had it worse than most. 146 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:21,800 And here's why. 147 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:26,160 First of all, Rahab was a prostitute. 148 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:34,720 And that meant that Rahab was used and discarded by the men of her world. 149 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:40,160 Back then, of course, prostitution was never a career someone would choose for themselves. 150 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:44,040 It was a last resort really, right? 151 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:45,560 Prostitutes were people who usually had no money. 152 00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:47,120 They had no influence. 153 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:48,120 They had no protection. 154 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:49,120 They had no security. 155 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:54,820 And so in that sense, people like Rahab were kind of forced into prostitution. 156 00:10:54,820 --> 00:11:02,920 And so instead of being valued as a person with dignity, often they were just used and 157 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:03,920 they were discarded. 158 00:11:03,920 --> 00:11:07,280 They were kind of the bottom, the lowest of the low. 159 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:17,080 But if that wasn't bad enough, not only was she used by men, but she was abused by religion. 160 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:18,440 And here I'll explain why. 161 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:23,920 And that is because the Canaanite religion was a fertility religion. 162 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:29,620 And so they believed in these fertility gods, which meant that if you wanted good crops, 163 00:11:29,620 --> 00:11:35,240 if you wanted lots of livestock, if you wanted a big healthy family, then you had to please 164 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:36,980 these gods. 165 00:11:36,980 --> 00:11:44,120 And one of the ways, the main way that you please these gods was through ritual prostitution. 166 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:49,960 And that meant that, imagine this, picture this, a temple filled with prostitutes. 167 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:57,420 And men of Canaan, they go into the temple and they have sex with these prostitutes. 168 00:11:57,420 --> 00:12:00,520 And it's an act of worship. 169 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:03,620 This is an act of worship, having sex with these prostitutes. 170 00:12:03,620 --> 00:12:08,680 And the thinking is, is that the more people did this, the more the gods looked down from 171 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:12,600 on high and they were pleased or even aroused. 172 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:17,200 And as a result, the gods would pour out their blessings and pour out their goodness and 173 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:22,760 cause your crops to grow and cause your flocks to increase. 174 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:31,200 It was a totally twisted system because it not only exploited and abused women, but it 175 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:35,200 justified it all in the name of religion. 176 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:42,440 Can you imagine Rahab believing that even the gods thought that this is all that she 177 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,280 was good for? 178 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:47,320 So she was used by men. 179 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:48,720 She was abused by religion. 180 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:52,440 And thirdly, she was excluded from society. 181 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:56,360 Being a prostitute meant that you didn't get to hang out in the center of action where 182 00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:57,360 everything was going on. 183 00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:00,120 You didn't get invited to all the respectable parties. 184 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:01,840 You weren't welcome at the community gatherings. 185 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:03,480 No, you were on the margins. 186 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:08,720 In fact, the Bible even tells us that Rahab lived on the margins, right? 187 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,400 Her house was part of the city wall. 188 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:14,400 She didn't have a home among the thriving center of Jericho. 189 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:16,600 No, no, she lived in the wall. 190 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:22,680 She lived in the edge of society, as far removed from the center of life as possible. 191 00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:31,080 And there she was, the damsel in distress, used by men, abused by religion, removed from 192 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:35,000 the life of the city, a woman on the margins. 193 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:41,080 Oh, I bet you, I bet you Rahab sat there at night and she hummed this little tune. 194 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:46,480 I need a hero, I'm calling out for a hero to the right. 195 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:49,400 He's gotta be strong. 196 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:51,480 So who are the heroes in this story? 197 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:57,000 Where is the white knight that is coming sailing in to save Rahab from her plight? 198 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:01,160 I mean, it appears that we're about to meet them because the way the story goes, we hear 199 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:03,400 about these spies. 200 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:07,160 And of course, you know, spies can often be heroes, right? 201 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:09,600 I love a good spy movie, right? 202 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:15,840 I love, you know, spies sneaking around, breaking into enemy compounds, you know, scuba diving 203 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,840 underneath ships, you know, the elite agents. 204 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:24,960 We're thinking of people like, you know, Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible or James Bond 205 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,240 or Jason Bourne, right? 206 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:28,240 These are heroes. 207 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:36,760 Well, prepare to meet the superhero spies of Israel because Joshua is sending some spies 208 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:43,440 into Jericho to just scope things out, to do a little recon before he attacks it. 209 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,580 And you would think that these guys, they're spies after all, right? 210 00:14:47,580 --> 00:14:51,200 These are gonna be the heroes of the story. 211 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:59,160 But it turns out, turns out these guys are not heroes, they're zeros, right? 212 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:05,320 These two guys are the worst spies in all of history. 213 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:09,440 Just think Jason Bourne, think Austin Powers, right? 214 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:11,720 That's the kind of hero that we're dealing with here. 215 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:13,800 Joshua tells them, listen, guys, I want you to do this. 216 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:14,920 I want you to go in there. 217 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:16,280 I want you to be sly. 218 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:17,720 I want you to blend in. 219 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:20,240 I want you to be invisible. 220 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:25,900 But within a few hours, they have totally botched the entire mission. 221 00:15:25,900 --> 00:15:29,480 And maybe we should have seen this coming because we're actually told the name of the 222 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:32,120 hometown that these two heroes came from. 223 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:33,120 I don't know if you noticed it. 224 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:34,120 Yeah, that's right. 225 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:35,720 They're from a town called Shiddam. 226 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:42,480 Yeah, I don't know about you, but when I hear about a couple guys coming from Shiddam, I 227 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:46,220 don't have high hopes for who they are. 228 00:15:46,220 --> 00:15:48,960 But anyways, they're complete and abject failures. 229 00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:52,580 First of all, they are moral failures, right? 230 00:15:52,580 --> 00:15:59,180 These highly trained, covert soldiers, they get into the city of Jericho and literally, 231 00:15:59,180 --> 00:16:05,160 the first thing they do is we read, they entered the house of a prostitute. 232 00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:08,520 Now where was that in the plan, guys? 233 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:09,780 What are they thinking? 234 00:16:09,780 --> 00:16:12,880 They're supposed to be like men on a mission. 235 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:16,680 The first thing they do is say, hey, let's go find a prostitute, right? 236 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:19,160 Now some people say, wait, wait, Rob, no. 237 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:21,240 I don't think they actually went and slept with a prostitute. 238 00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:23,480 They just lodged at her house. 239 00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:24,480 But I mean, come on. 240 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:28,280 I think even Hebrew scholars, they look at the language, they look at the wording here 241 00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:32,300 and they say, no, there's clearly sexual undertones here. 242 00:16:32,300 --> 00:16:36,120 And by the way, that wouldn't be the first time that Israel, Israelite men had fallen 243 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:38,480 into sexual immorality with Canaanite women. 244 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:41,240 So anyways, I think this is kind of how it went down. 245 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:42,640 They were heading into town. 246 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:46,040 They said, hey, have you heard about the women of Canaan? 247 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:47,800 Have you heard about the women here in Jericho? 248 00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:51,480 They have sex with people as part of their religion. 249 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:52,480 So hey, you know what? 250 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:57,560 Why don't we mix a little business with pleasure, if you know what I mean, right? 251 00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:01,960 What happens in Jericho stays in Jericho. 252 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:02,960 And you know what? 253 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:05,320 Besides, we're just going to destroy this city anyways, right? 254 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:08,080 I mean, everybody else uses these girls for whatever they want. 255 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:09,880 Why don't we just use them too? 256 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:13,100 They're just going to be slaughtered on the streets. 257 00:17:13,100 --> 00:17:17,040 So listen, these are not the heroes we had hoped for. 258 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:18,200 They are moral failures. 259 00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:23,000 But secondly, not only did this is a complete moral failure, but the whole thing is a complete 260 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,380 tactical disaster, right? 261 00:17:25,380 --> 00:17:31,640 Because it turns out, like an hour after the mission begins, their cover is blown already. 262 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:32,680 Yeah, that's right. 263 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:36,000 The king of Jericho already knows that they're there. 264 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:40,080 He announces, hey, there's Israelites that have broken into the city and they're spying 265 00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:41,080 out the land. 266 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:42,080 Guys, get them. 267 00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:43,240 And he sends out his soldiers. 268 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:50,280 These boneheads were supposed to be undercover spies, but their stealth mission turns into 269 00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:55,480 this like townwide manhunt before they even had the chance to like order room service, 270 00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:56,480 right? 271 00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:59,200 They are the world's worst spies. 272 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:02,720 And this brings us to the third thing that I think we should know is this whole mission 273 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:09,280 is a complete failure of leadership because these guys were supposed to be under orders. 274 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,000 They were under orders of Joshua. 275 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:14,960 They were under the orders of God, right? 276 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:17,620 That's what's supposed to be dictating their actions. 277 00:18:17,620 --> 00:18:22,560 But they seem to have very little regard for actually what God or Joshua has actually called 278 00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:23,560 them to do here. 279 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:27,200 Instead, they're following their own impulses, their own desires. 280 00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:28,880 These guys aren't leaders. 281 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:31,200 They aren't heroes. 282 00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:33,680 They aren't saving the day. 283 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:38,280 Instead, they need saving. 284 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:43,800 And this is where the real hero of the story emerges. 285 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:46,840 Rahab is the one that does the rescuing. 286 00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:50,320 Rahab is the one who outsmarts the enemy. 287 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:55,680 Rahab becomes the unexpected hero of this story. 288 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:58,440 And she does it in a pretty brilliant way. 289 00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:02,400 And I want to just look at, you know, what was it? 290 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,320 How did Rahab become this hero? 291 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:13,760 Well, the first thing she does, the most surprising thing ever, and that is she shows them mercy. 292 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:15,320 I don't know how she did it. 293 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:17,400 These spies wanted to use her. 294 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,620 They wanted to dispose of her just like every other man has. 295 00:19:20,620 --> 00:19:23,520 She could easily have said, I'm just going to hand these guys over to the authorities. 296 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,720 I want to watch them suffer. 297 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:30,040 But instead, she shows them mercy. 298 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:32,200 She hides these doofuses. 299 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:34,040 She actually lies for them. 300 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:35,680 The soldiers come knocking at the door. 301 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:39,400 Hey, Rahab, we heard that there's some spies in this brothel, right? 302 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:40,400 Can you send them out? 303 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:41,680 She's like, oh, yeah, there were some guys here. 304 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:43,360 I don't know who they were, but they already left. 305 00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:45,880 I think they went west or whatever. 306 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:46,880 She lies. 307 00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:47,880 Go catch them. 308 00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:48,880 You might catch up to them. 309 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:49,880 Right? 310 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:50,880 It's shocking. 311 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:51,880 She saves them. 312 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:52,880 Why? 313 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:55,800 But we find out the reason. 314 00:19:55,800 --> 00:20:03,880 This Canaanite prostitute is willing to show mercy to these two Israelite knuckleheads 315 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:13,240 because she has faith in their God, in the God of Israel. 316 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:19,600 Somehow she has heard about Israel's God and she has come to believe in that God or at 317 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:22,640 least want to know more about this God. 318 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:29,000 And so she actually speaks this line, this word of faith, one of the most awesome statements 319 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,440 of faith, I think really anywhere in the Bible. 320 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:41,640 She says to those spies, the Lord, your God is indeed God of heaven above and on earth 321 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,320 below. 322 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:50,240 Even though she's a Canaanite, somehow she has heard the stories of Israelite God, of 323 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:51,240 Israel's God. 324 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:55,480 And maybe she heard the story of how God led them out of Egypt to freedom. 325 00:20:55,480 --> 00:21:01,360 Maybe she heard the story of how this God helped them to defeat other enemies on the 326 00:21:01,360 --> 00:21:03,680 east side of the Jordan. 327 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:05,160 Now as a prostitute, it is true. 328 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:08,040 You do meet a lot of people, if you know what I mean, right? 329 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:09,520 Travelers passing through. 330 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:14,000 You know, you end up hearing a lot about what's happening in the outside world. 331 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:16,300 And she had heard the buzz. 332 00:21:16,300 --> 00:21:20,960 She had heard the buzz about there is a God in Israel, a different kind of God in Israel. 333 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:25,760 And she declares her faith and she believes. 334 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:28,280 And then the most amazing thing happens. 335 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:31,080 She switches sides. 336 00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:34,600 All she's ever known in her life was Canaanite culture. 337 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:35,600 That was her life. 338 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:36,600 That was how she was brought up. 339 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:37,940 That was how she was taught. 340 00:21:37,940 --> 00:21:39,440 That was the air that she breathed. 341 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:44,120 And she's willing now to let it all go and join the other side. 342 00:21:44,120 --> 00:21:45,320 Double agent, right? 343 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:53,720 She was willing to be a traitor to her own people in order to follow the God of Israel. 344 00:21:53,720 --> 00:22:00,480 And I wonder, I wonder if she's also heard that the God of Israel doesn't require ritual 345 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:01,480 prostitution. 346 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,560 It seems to have a different view of women. 347 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:11,760 That this God of Israel doesn't require a child sacrifice. 348 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:15,840 There's no sex temples in Israel. 349 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:21,160 Whatever it was, she rejects her entire culture. 350 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,440 She changes sides. 351 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:29,680 And she says to them, now then, listen, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show 352 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,840 kindness to my family because I have shown kindness to you. 353 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:38,760 This is this Hebrew word has said, which we've talked about here before at Trinity. 354 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:45,600 It is this kindness, this loving kindness, this covenant kindness, this kind of kindness 355 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,240 that God extends to us. 356 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:50,080 It's a sacrificial kindness. 357 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:52,300 Listen, she's got no power. 358 00:22:52,300 --> 00:22:53,680 She's been victimized her whole life. 359 00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,440 She's facing death now from a foreign power. 360 00:22:56,440 --> 00:23:03,280 And she looks into the eyes of these two idiot spies who wanted to use her and then wanted 361 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:05,640 to discard her, didn't care a thing about her. 362 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:13,360 And she extends God's loving kindness to them. 363 00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:19,480 And they look into her eyes and I think they're, they are cut to the heart, right? 364 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:25,920 They come to their senses because see when they arrived there that night, they thought, 365 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:31,600 ah, this is just another girl, another piece of meat, someone disposable, someone we can 366 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:33,520 do whatever we want to. 367 00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:41,480 And now in this moment, they look into her eyes and they see someone who knows and understands 368 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:46,620 the love of God better than they do. 369 00:23:46,620 --> 00:23:54,320 They see someone who is more faithful to God than they are, who demonstrates righteousness 370 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,800 more than they do. 371 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:02,240 And that's when they realize we're not the heroes of the story. 372 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:06,360 This is the hero of the story. 373 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:09,620 K. Losson Younger describes this reversal. 374 00:24:09,620 --> 00:24:14,040 These mighty men of God are found to be much less than expected. 375 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:20,920 While a whore who we expect to be in the depths of sin is the one who truly knows God and 376 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:25,300 is obedient to him. 377 00:24:25,300 --> 00:24:30,720 And her kindness to them draws out their kindness back. 378 00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:34,280 They say to her, listen, our lives for your lives. 379 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:37,720 If anything happens to you, may it be upon our head. 380 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:44,500 That's another way of saying if any harm comes to you or your family, may our lives be forfeit. 381 00:24:44,500 --> 00:24:48,760 They are now willing to lay down their lives for her. 382 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:51,160 It's absolutely amazing. 383 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,300 They aren't actually just getting rescued physically. 384 00:24:54,300 --> 00:24:58,420 She has somehow, I think, rescued them spiritually. 385 00:24:58,420 --> 00:25:03,720 And so they escape and they go back to Joshua and they tell him everything that has happened. 386 00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:05,440 It's actually pretty hilarious though, these spies. 387 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:08,080 I don't think they actually did any spying in the end. 388 00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:14,280 They just went straight to a prostitute, got busted, and then were somehow, you know, snuck 389 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:15,280 out of the city. 390 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:21,080 But, but actually we do learn some very important lessons about heroism in the process. 391 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:30,320 Firstly, isn't it amazing how heroes in God's kingdom so often arise from the margins? 392 00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,760 Look at the people God chooses again and again. 393 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:34,800 It's not the kings. 394 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:36,280 It's not the presidents. 395 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:37,960 It's not the CEOs. 396 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,180 It's not the people with power or status or influence. 397 00:25:41,180 --> 00:25:42,640 It's the outsiders. 398 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:44,060 It's the overlooked. 399 00:25:44,060 --> 00:25:46,840 It's the Rahabs of the world. 400 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:51,240 We tend to judge people by their position, by their status. 401 00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:52,240 We look at the poor. 402 00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:53,240 We look at the homeless. 403 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:57,360 We look at the jobless, the mentally ill, the troublemakers, the immoral. 404 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:02,240 And we think, oh, God couldn't possibly use that person. 405 00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:06,320 But guys, God has an entirely different value system. 406 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,320 And it's one where the forgotten people become the favored people. 407 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,840 It's where the outsiders become the insiders. 408 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:18,840 It's where the damsel in distress becomes the hero of faith. 409 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:22,360 And I just want to say, if you have ever felt unworthy, if you have ever felt like, oh, 410 00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:23,700 I'm on the outside. 411 00:26:23,700 --> 00:26:24,700 God could ever use me. 412 00:26:24,700 --> 00:26:26,680 If he knew my track record, he knew what I'd been up to. 413 00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:29,600 If he knew my life, you know what that means? 414 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:33,920 You're exactly the kind of person that God loves to use. 415 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:38,400 No matter your past, no matter your false, no matter your screw ups, right? 416 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:41,260 It's your faith that matters to God. 417 00:26:41,260 --> 00:26:46,300 And that means, as a church, by the way, we need to stop looking past the people that 418 00:26:46,300 --> 00:26:49,760 God is actually looking toward, right? 419 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:51,760 Who is it that we're overlooking? 420 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:53,520 Who do we write off? 421 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:58,920 Who are the Rahabs in Mississauga today? 422 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:06,400 Those are often the very people God is calling us to love and to invite into his kingdom. 423 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:15,320 The second thing we learn from Rahab is that heroes of faith have this amazing legacy. 424 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:19,600 If you were to follow Rahab's story, we couldn't keep reading, but if you were to follow it 425 00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:24,360 after Jericho, you will see that the spies were actually good on their word, that they 426 00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:31,360 did spare Rahab and her whole family, and that actually later on, Rahab ends up marrying 427 00:27:31,360 --> 00:27:33,500 an Israelite man. 428 00:27:33,500 --> 00:27:38,040 And they have a son, and that son's name is Boaz. 429 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:42,240 And Boaz grows up to be a great man of faith and a man of great, great character. 430 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,520 Boaz becomes the father of this guy called Obed. 431 00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:49,040 And Obed becomes the father of this guy called Jesse. 432 00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:57,520 Jesse becomes the father of this kid named David, who would later become king of Israel, 433 00:27:57,520 --> 00:27:59,680 the greatest king Israel's ever known. 434 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:01,240 So think about that. 435 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:09,360 Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute, is the great grandmother of King David. 436 00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:15,040 And if that weren't enough, her legacy goes even farther because that means that Rahab 437 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:20,840 became the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother of 438 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:24,320 Jesus Christ himself. 439 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:25,720 What a legacy. 440 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:32,280 Can you imagine God, including a Canaanite prostitute in the family line of his own son, 441 00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:33,280 the Messiah? 442 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,000 It's exactly what he does. 443 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,520 And it made me think, you know, in like Luke chapter seven, when Jesus is sitting there 444 00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:43,960 at the table and there's this prostitute that comes in and she's weeping at his feet. 445 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:48,200 Do you think that maybe Jesus remembered his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, 446 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:52,080 great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Rahab? 447 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:57,800 Did he think about how God's grace transformed her story? 448 00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:02,900 And I just think we have to remember that our choices, our faith, our willingness to 449 00:29:02,900 --> 00:29:09,480 trust God can leave a legacy that we have no idea, that could leave a legacy for generations 450 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:10,480 to come. 451 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,640 You may not see all the ripple effects right now. 452 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,600 You may not know what God is going to do through your obedience today, but just like Rahab, 453 00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:20,160 your faith can outlive you. 454 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:28,240 And the last thing we learned from Rahab, and I said this earlier, heroes switch sides. 455 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,960 Rahab makes this crazy radical choice. 456 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:35,480 She turned her back on the only culture that she had ever known. 457 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:39,800 She walked away from her home, her identity, her past, and she switched sides. 458 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:40,800 Because why? 459 00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:44,440 Because she realized that God was doing something bigger and better in the world. 460 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:49,280 She had to betray her own people to be faithful to God's kingdom. 461 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:56,040 And I have to ask you, are you willing to do the same? 462 00:29:56,040 --> 00:30:03,160 Are you willing to become a traitor to this culture that we live in, in order to be faithful 463 00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:05,160 to God? 464 00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:06,280 Because here's the truth. 465 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:10,760 Every single one of us is shaped by this culture, right? 466 00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:12,280 It's not the Canaanite culture. 467 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:13,280 It's our own culture, right? 468 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:14,880 And it tells us a story. 469 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:18,840 It says, you know, get ahead, climb the ladder, make money, get power, secure your future, 470 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:23,000 look out for yourself, be successful, be strong, be admired. 471 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,040 This is what you've been taught from birth. 472 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:30,640 This is what society rewards. 473 00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:33,220 But Jesus calls us to a different story. 474 00:30:33,220 --> 00:30:36,720 His story says, lay down your life, consider others before yourself. 475 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,880 If you've got two coats, give one away, love your enemies, be content with what you have, 476 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:43,560 store up treasures in heaven, not on earth. 477 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,320 The first shall be last, the last shall be first. 478 00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:52,920 May have switched sides, will you? 479 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:58,320 I even think, I mean, if I may, we look at the world that we're living in today, where's 480 00:30:58,320 --> 00:30:59,320 your allegiance? 481 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:06,460 I mean, because we're watching a world where cruelty is becoming increasingly glorified, 482 00:31:06,460 --> 00:31:14,640 where power is worshiped, where leaders are choosing oppression over justice, where selfishness 483 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:17,740 is somehow becoming a virtue. 484 00:31:17,740 --> 00:31:26,200 We are watching the rise of totalitarianism, right, in our own time, even in places that 485 00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:30,400 were once considered bastions of freedom and democracy. 486 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:35,060 I don't want to get all political, but the question is really the same question, right? 487 00:31:35,060 --> 00:31:37,900 Which kingdom are you going to stand with? 488 00:31:37,900 --> 00:31:44,320 Will you align with the world's story where power and greed and self-preservation are 489 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:45,320 the rule? 490 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:52,440 Or will you align with God's kingdom where mercy and sacrifice and love reign? 491 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:56,560 Here's the thing, switching sides will cost you, cost Rahab, right? 492 00:31:56,560 --> 00:32:02,000 May cost you comfort, may cost you some approval, may cost you some money, cost you some security. 493 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:06,480 It may mean standing apart in a radical way from the culture that you are in right now. 494 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:08,160 But Jesus did not call us to blend in. 495 00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:17,040 He calls us, like Rahab, to switch sides, to align ourselves with the kingdom of God. 496 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:23,760 Rahab, man, she is not a damsel in distress. 497 00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:28,680 She is a hero that rises from the margins. 498 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,240 She's not rescued, she's the rescuer, right? 499 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,080 She's not silenced, she speaks boldly. 500 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:37,120 She's not forgotten, she's going to be remembered forever. 501 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:41,120 Because she saw the truth of God and she took a risk and she took a chance and she chose 502 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,600 the side of God. 503 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:46,480 That was Rahab's choice. 504 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:48,640 Today it's your choice. 505 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:52,120 And so what will you choose? 506 00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:53,560 Amen. 507 00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:59,120 Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. 508 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:07,280 This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church, Streetsville on February 23rd, 2025.