Now, if the spies hid at her spot and nobody saw them, you could argue that her being used was out of her control. Yet in them being seen, she had to make an intentional decision. And because her actions were intentional, she made a request in Joshua 2:12-13.
12 Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, 13 and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”
I guess you can look at it like this. Rahab said, “I know you lot are about to kills us all, so before all that happens, I want to cut a deal with your God. When you come to destroy and tear this place apart, I want you to have my back, cause I just had yours.” She cut a deal with God’s people. I guess you can say that she offered up a trade, wanting an exchange. Kindness for kindness.
An exchange? Almost like when she used to exchange her body for…
Rahab reminded the spies that she had just spared their lives, providing kindness. In response, she asked them to deal kindly with her and her family. “You will also”, creates the sense that this a two-way arrangement, and exchange of sorts. Her history and her profession had taught her how to work with these kinds of arrangements.
She asked for kindness. But this isn’t the kindness that we typically seek today. We here kindness and we think of being friendly or nice, but in the Bible kindness more associated with faithfulness and loyalty.
How do you know that? Were you there? No
We read kindness, but the Hebrew word commonly used is actually “chesed”. See this word is used hundreds of times across the Old Testament, especially when referring to a covenant between two parties. An example would be God’s covenantal covering despite Israel’s unfaithfulness. When someone has God’s chesed, that person has the backing of a covenant.
Back to Rahab. Rahab said she wanted a covenant – a loyal love. She wanted an agreement that she could count on. But in the end, her desire stems from her act of faithfulness. An exchange of kindness for kindness.
Okay, so Rahab did a good thing and was repaid for it. But there must be more to it right?
A lot of us have heard that faith without works is dead and James puts its perfectly in chapter 2.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?
This verse has been debated to infinity about whether faith is enough to get into heaven and all of that. And that’s cool, but that’s not what we’re doing here.
Let’s just say, what if the faith and salvation James is referring to, isn’t the same salvation as the one for eternity.
We already know, salvation for eternity comes by faith alone in Christ alone. That kind of faith will get someone into heaven.
I’ve always thought that getting to heaven shouldn’t be the end goal, or at least God still wants us to do more and wants to do more in us. See there will be all kind of people in heaven, some who have been serving their entire life and some who gave their life to Christ hours before they died.
And I think James knew that; God wants more for us than just making heaven.
There are many people who will make it to glory but have never experienced God’s glory on earth. Many who believed but never had a testimony of how God entered their life, flipped it upside down and turned the scales in their favour. So many look forward to heaven simply because they feel like that’s the only time, they’ll experience God.
I think this is what James is referring to. Many of us aren’t seeing God’s hand in our lives, not because a lack of faith, but because a lack of action.
18 But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.
Remember what Rahab said. They all knew about God. They knew what God was on. Yet they carried on as they were. Rahab “believed” in God, she knew and feared his power, but it wasn’t until she stepped in faith and hid the spies, that the prostitute became righteous.
Did you really have to throw in “prostitute” there?
No, but it’s provocative…it gets the people going!
25 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? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
My Sunday Skl 