Recently, I came across some cynical observations on life and work: Nothing is foolproof to a talented fool; the early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese; borrow money from a pessimist – they don't expect it back; if at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried; experience is something you don't get until just after you need it; the sooner you fall behind the more time you will have to catch up; if at first you don't succeed, then sky diving isn't for you. (www.PreachingToday.com)
Life is messy and full of failure, so what do you do when you have failed? What do you do when you have messed up not just a little bit, but big time? What do you do when you’re the “first mouse” so to speak? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Joshua 2, Joshua 2, where we meet a woman who was a moral failure living in a city condemned to destruction.
Joshua 2:1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. (ESV)
If Israel was going to possess the Promised Land, they had to start with Jericho, a major city right in the heart of that land. So Joshua sends the spies specifically to Jericho, where they stay with a prostitute. No doubt, it’s a place where strangers can hide inconspicuously, since there would be a lot of strange men going in and out of her house. But it would be one of the most vile places to stay for a godly Jew.
You see. Rahab, the prostitute, was a loser in every sense of the word. She was a Canaanite, a culture that God condemned for their child sacrifices and gross immorality in the worship their disgusting gods. But more than that, she was a notorious sinner, the worst of the worse, a prostitute, in a culture known for its degrading immorality. Every time her name is mentioned in the Bible, she is called, “Rahab the Prostitute.”
How would you like people to remember you, for all time, by the sins you’ve committed. “Hey folks, here’s Harry the Hypocrite. And over there is Gertrude the Gossip. Oh, and we can’t forget Larry the Liar.”
Not very flattering, is it? But that’s exactly how Rahab was remembered all her life – as Rahab, the Prostitute.
On top of that, she is a liar.
Joshua 2:2-4 And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. (ESV)
She is lying.
Joshua 2:5-7 And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. (ESV)
She lied to protect the spies. Don’t diminish that flaw in her character. Don’t try to excuse it or explain it away.
I know the New Testament commends her for her actions. Hebrews 11:31 says, “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.” And James 2:25 asks, “Was not… Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”
The New Testament commends Rahab for her actions. But if you look carefully, it commends her faith as it demonstrates itself in her works. It does not commend her lying. It commends her for “giving a friendly welcome” to the spies, and for “sending them out by another way,” not for lying about their whereabouts.
A little boy asked his mother, “Mommy, what is a lie?” His mother answered by saying, “Son, a lie is an abomination unto the Lord… But a very present help in time of need!”
We laugh, but that’s what people really believe and practice today. Our culture teaches us: it’s all right to lie sometimes. It’s all right to sleep with someone you’re not married to, if you really love that person. It’s all right to “sin” at times, especially if the situation is right, or there is a good result.
Our society teaches us that “the ends justifies the means,” but that is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible has a clear set of moral absolutes, which are unchangeable, which should not be broken under any circumstance. They are not the ten suggestions. They are the ten commandments!
The ends NEVER justifies the means. It is NEVER right to do wrong to do right. Let me say it again. It is NEVER right to do wrong to do right. I know some of you are struggling with that. It’s because you’ve been brainwashed by your culture, a culture which denies the existence of moral absolutes.
That was also the culture of the Canaanites – Rahab’s culture. She lied and didn’t think anything of it. Don’t diminish that. Don’t excuse it, or try to explain it away, because it makes what God does for her so much more marvelous and so much more wonderful!
Rahab was a prostitute and a liar, but God loved her and wanted to do something special in her life. That’s why He sent the spies to her house, and not to the house of some other prostitute. But make no mistake, Rahab was a real loser, but so is everyone one of us!
All of us are failures just like Rahab. The Bible says, “None is righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). And “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
In his book Vanishing Grace, Philip Yancey shares a story about a World War II veteran, currently serving as a pastor, who had participated in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. At the end of the war, as the U.S. soldiers marched through the gates of Dachau, nothing could prepare them for what they found in the boxcars within the camp. The man said:
“A buddy and I were assigned to one boxcar. Inside were human bodies, stacked in neat rows, exactly like firewood. Most were corpses, but a few still had a faint pulse. The Germans, ever meticulous, had planned out the rows—alternating the heads and feet, and accommodating different sizes and shapes of bodies.”
The World War II Vet turned pastor said, “Our job was like moving furniture. We would pick up each body—so light!—and carry it to a designated area. I spent two hours in the boxcar, two hours that for me included every known emotion: rage, pity, shame, revulsion—every negative emotion, I should say. They came in waves, all but the rage. It stayed, fueling our work.”
Then a fellow soldier named Chuck agreed to escort twelve SS officers in charge of Dachau to an interrogation center nearby … A few minutes later the crew working in the boxcar heard bursts of a machine gun. Soon Chuck came strolling out, smoke still curling from the tip of his weapon. “They all tried to run away,” he said with a leer.
When Yancey asked if anyone reported what Chuck did or took disciplinary action, the pastor said:
“No, and that's what got to me. It was on that day that I felt called by God to become a pastor. First, there was the horror of the corpses in the boxcar. I could not absorb such a scene. I did not even know such Absolute Evil existed. But when I saw it, I knew beyond doubt that I must spend my life serving whatever opposed such Evil—serving God.
“Then came the incident with Chuck,” the pastor said. “I had a nauseating fear that the captain might call on me to escort the next group of SS guards, and an even more dread fear that if he did, I might do the same as Chuck. The beast that was within those guards was also within me. (Philip Yancey, Vanishing Grace, Zondervan, 2014, page 63; www.PreachingToday.com)
You see, we’re all beasts. We’re all sinners. We’re all equally broken in desperate need of God’s grace. And the sooner we realize it, the sooner we’ll accept God’s help. So when you fail…
REALIZE YOU’RE A LOSER.
Admit that you cannot help yourself. Acknowledge that you are “poor in spirit,” for “of such is the Kingdom of Heaven,” Jesus says. Confess the fact that you’ve blown it. Realize you’re a loser. But don’t stop there. In that realization…
RELY ON THE LORD TO MAKE YOU A WINNER!
Trust God to save you. Depend on the sovereign Lord to make a difference in your life. Depend on God, and God alone to rescue you from your sin and change you from the inside out. That’s what Rahab did.
Joshua 2:8-11 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt 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 devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. (ESV)
This is Rahab’s confession of faith, and the key to understanding the whole chapter. Rahab knows that her gods are useless, and she confesses that Israel’s God is Ruler over heaven AND earth, that He, and He alone is in charge. Sure, Rahab was a moral failure, a loser, but she relied on the God of Israel, the Sovereign Lord of all the universe, and she asked for help.
Joshua 2:12-13 Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” (ESV)
She wants them to spare her family when they attack the city.
Joshua 2:14-21 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the LORD gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, “Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.” And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window. (ESV)
That scarlet cord was the “sure sign” she had asked for in vs.12. It was her guarantee that these men would keep their word and spare her family. Do you get the picture? The door of Rahab’s house becomes the door of salvation. The scarlet chord out her window is the “sure sign.” It is the guarantee that all who enter through that door will indeed be saved from the utter destruction that is coming.
What a beautiful picture of OUR salvation! Jesus is the door of our salvation. In John 10, Jesus says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (vs.9). And furthermore, Jesus’ shed blood is God’s sure sign, God s guarantee that we who enter through that door will indeed be saved from the judgment to come. When Jesus instituted communion, He said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25). In other words, Jesus’ blood is His pledge to you, His sure sign, that He will keep His covenant, that He will keep His promise to you.
A beggar stopped a lawyer on the street in a large Southern city and asked him for a quarter. Taking a long, hard look into the man’s unshaven face, the attorney asked, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
“You should,” came the reply. “I’m a former classmate of yours. Remember, 2nd floor, Old Main Hall?”
“Why Sam, of course I know you!” Without further question the lawyer wrote a check for $100. “Here, take this and get a new start. I don’t care what’s happened in the past. It’s the future that counts.” And with that he hurried on.
Tears welled up in the beggar’s eyes as he walked to a bank nearby. Stopping at the door, he saw through the glass well-ressed tellers and the spotlessly clean interior. Then be looked at his filthy rags.
“They won’t take this from me. They’ll swear I forged it,” he muttered as he turned away.
The next day the two men met again. “Why Sam, what. did you do with my check? Gamble it away? Drink it up?”
“No,” said the beggar as he pulled it out of his dirty shirt pocket and told why he hadn’t cashed it.
“Listen, friend,” said the lawyer. “What. makes that check good is not your clothes or appearance, but my signature. Go on, cash it!”
We’re all beggars in this world, dressed in the filthy rags of moral failure, but God has written us a check. He has promised us “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Then He signed that promise, He signed that check in His Son’s blood. That’s what makes the difference! It is not your clothes or appearance. It is not your spirituality, or lack thereof. It is HIS signature. It is HIS Son’s shed blood that makes all the difference in the world. All you need to do is cash that check. All you need to do is accept the eternal riches God offers. All you need to do is receive His salvation by faith.
That’s what Rahab does here. She doesn’t even know all that we know. She hasn’t even heard of Jesus Christ – He doesn’t come on the scene for another 1,500 years yet. But what little she does know, she acts in faith upon it and accepts the salvation offered to her and her family. She relies upon the Lord. She depends on His promise, and it makes all the difference in the world for her.
In Joshua 6, she and her family are delivered from utter destruction when the walls around Jerico fall down flat. Not only that, in Matthew 1, we find her in the genealogy of Christ. God puts her in the line of the Messiah! And not once, but twice, the New Testament commends her for her faith, in Hebrews 11 and in James 2. She is honored throughout all history for the faith she demonstrated right here in Joshua 2.
Rahab, though a loser, becomes a winner, simply because she relied on the Lord. She depended on Him to save her not only from destruction, but also from a wasted life.
And that’s exactly what you must do when you fail. Rely on the Lord. Trust Jesus with your life. Depend on Him to save you from sin, not only from the penalty of sin, but also from the power of sin in your every-day life.
You see, when you rely on the Lord, He not only saves you from utter destruction in Hell. He saves you from destructive, sinful habits. He saves you from harmful addictions. He saves you from bitterness and anger. He saves you from worry and anxiety. He saves you from a wasted life. Just trust the Lord with your life and let Him save you from sin today!
When you fail, don’t try to save yourself. Instead, realize you’re a loser (we all are), and rely on the Lord to turn your failure into victory!
In his book The Prodigal God, Tim Keller tells the story of Hai and Lan in postwar Vietnam. Hai is a rickshaw driver, who is in love with Lan, a prostitute. Lan lives in grinding poverty and longs to live in the beautiful world where she works, but in which she never spends the night. She hopes that the money she makes by prostitution will be her means of escape, but instead the work brutalizes and enslaves her.
Then Hai enters a rickshaw race and wins the top prize. With the money he brings Lan to the hotel. He pays for the night and pays her fee. Then he tells her he just wants to watch her fall asleep. Instead of using his power and wealth to have sex with her, he spends it to purchase a place for her for one night in a normal world, to fulfill her desire to belong.
Lan finds such grace deeply troubling at first, thinking that Han has done this to control her. When it becomes apparent that he is using his power to serve rather than use her, it begins to transform her, making it impossible to return to a life of prostitution. (Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, Riverhead Books, 2008, pp. 96-98; www.PreachingToday.com)
In a similar way, “Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), for you and me who are unworthy of His love. Please, even in your failure, trust in His love and let it transform you forever!
