Women do not have fight to play a major role in war. The
gentle schemes of women are often able to do what bombs and
bullets cannot do. Mary Murray is a great example from the
Revolutionary War. George Washington and two of his
generals had escaped from the British in New York, but
General Putnam was still evacuating lower Manhatten. What
they did not know was that they were marching right into the
path of the British General Howe, who had just come to the
colonies with 8,000 fresh troops. It would have been a terrible
defeat for the colonies.
Mary Murray, the wife of a wealthy New York merchant,
learned of this impending disaster, and she went into action.
She invited the British General to stop for a cooling drink in
the spacious parlor of her mansion. This pulled him off the
road, and she sent one of her servants upstairs to watch the
cloud of dust so they could know when the American troops
had passed by. Fortunately, it was a hot day that September
15, 1776. General Howe accepted the invitation, and when he
prepared to leave she insisted he stay for a mid-day lunch.
General Howe hesitated because his men had to stand in the
hot sun. She solved that by having tables set out in back
under trees. The whole British army was kept cool and
entertained until the Americans were safely past.
The British never knew that a great victory slipped
through their hands because of a kind hospitality of a woman.
On Park Ave. of New York City there is a tablet honoring
Mary Murray for her heroic hospitality that made it possible
for the American army to escape. She helped win the
Revolutionary War with the weapon of kindness. It is a very
effective weapon, and we want to focus on a biblical woman
who became one of the most famous women in history
because she was kind to the Israelite spies, and helped them
escape from what appeared to be a hopeless situation. This
one act of kindness led Rahab to become a part of
Israel's history, and to even become a link in the chain that
led to the Messiah. She is part of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ. She is referred to by James as a great example of the
power of works, and in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, she
is one of the two women named in that great faith chapter as
a great example of faith. In spite of all her fame, and all the
coverage she gets in God's Word, her name never became a
popular name, which is usually the case with women who do
good and great things in the Bible. The reason for her name
never becoming widely used is due to the first aspect of her
life that we want to consider.
I. HER PAST PROFESSION.
Rahab was a harlot, or better known in our culture as a
prostitute. Here is a paradox, for she was a heathen harlot
who became a messianic mother, her name never escaped the
taint of her past, even though she did fully escape that past,
and will be singing in eternity the song of the redeemed. The
study of Rahab forces us to look at the subject of prostitution,
for this profession is always linked with her name except for
one time in the genealogy of Matt. 1. Even when she is held
up as a great example of faith and works she is called Rahab
the harlot.
The question that comes to our minds is why? Why is
prostitution so persistently prevalent all through history? It
is known as the oldest profession, and it is a profession that
has played a major role in history. You cannot study the role
of women in history, and not study this aspect of it. The Bible
recognizes it as a major subject. Harlot is used 40 times in the
Old Testament, and 8 times in the New Testament. Whore,
whoredom, and whoring, are used 83 times in the Old
Testament and 9 times in the New Testament. These
represent just a partial list of the biblical material on
prostitution, but they represent 140 verses of God's Word on
this issue. There is more on prostitution in the Bible than on
many other subjects, and it is because God knows the heart of
man better than we do.
Prostitution is, and always has been, a major economic
issue. Women have turned to it all through history for
survival. Men have always been tempted to cash in on the
willingness of other men to pay for sex. God knew the Jews
would be no different, and so He warns in Lev. 19:29, "Do not
degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the
land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness."
God knows that prostitution is the door to every other form of
evil, and once you open that door, the nation is on a downhill
slide. With it comes drugs, gambling, and crime of every sort.
It gives the underworld a major in road to society.
The point I want to focus on out of many we could
consider is that the degrading of women by means of
prostitution is primarily the responsibility of men, and when
men treat women this way, they destroy their own values, and
their own ideals. Men cannot treat women in a lowly manner
and expect to rise themselves. Men rise or sink depending on
how they treat women. Keep in mind that for every prostitute
there are many men who keep this profession alive.
This means that women are only a fraction of the problem.
The main problem is the lust of men.
The reason prostitution can never be eliminated by men is
because men are the power behind it. I have never studied a
subject that was more frustrating. Millions and millions of
women are enslaved, and almost nobody cares because the
power structure of our world demands these slaves. The
economic system of many nations depends upon prostitution.
Tourism and prostitution go hand in hand around the world.
Business is a key supporter of prostitution, and men are
rewarded for a good job by being given a night with a
prostitute. Governments and businesses entertain customers
and diplomats with prostitutes.
This is not a new thing in our day at all. It has been a part
of history. So basic is prostitution to the way of life of sinful
man that the great leaders of the church were not in favor of
abolishing it. St. Augustine, one of the most influential men
in the history of the church, said, "Remove prostitutes from
human affairs, and you will unsettle everything because of
lust." Centuries later the great theologian St. Thomas
Aquinas said, "Prostitution in the cities is like the sewage
system in the palace. Do away with it, and the palace will
turn into a place of filth and stink." Church councils have
supported prostitution as a way to control men's lust so that it
does not lead to rape, adultery, and the contamination of the
marriage bond. My point in all this is that the prostitutes of history have
been some of the most pathetic people because they have been
slaves that no one is interested in setting free. Even
Christians have not really tried to eliminate this blight,
because they see beneficial fringe benefits. The vast majority
of prostitutes hate what they have to do, but they have to no
way of escape. Poverty forces most of them into it, and
economic necessity keeps them there. You can, in
self-righteous pride, say I would starve first, but you do not
understand what life does to so many women.
In Indonesia, for example, the extreme poverty forces up to
60% of the women into prostitution. In Jakarta back in 1979
there were 600 Christian prostitutes who joined together to
care for their children. They had Bible studies and prayed
together, but there was no other way to survive, and that is
why they were prostitutes. Studying the history of this tragic
reality of life has helped me understand why the Bible
conveys such a message of sympathy for the prostitute. I can
better understand why Jesus let a prostitute wipe His feet
with her hair. I can better understand why He was willing to
accept the woman at the well in spite of her shabby past. I
can better grasp how Jesus could let the woman taken in
adultery go free and unpunished. What I can better see is
that God understands that women are victims of system that
forces them into immorality that they would not choose if they
were free to make a choice.
I am not blind to the many wicked women in history who
love evil, and who love to enslave other women, as well as men.
That is a part of history as well, but the fact is, the
majority need compassion for they are slaves and victims. By
the providence of God Rahab got the chance to be free of her
past, and she grabbed it and became a godly woman. If the
prostitutes of the world were given a chance to be free and
have the ability to make a decent living, most would make
that choice. Jesus said to the Pharisee that the harlots and
Publicans would enter the kingdom before them. The
implication is that they would respond to the Gospel and
become godly people.
What we need to see is that the ministry to prostitutes is a
valid ministry of compassion. Economic inequality has
always been the main cause for prostitution. The more poor
women you have in this world, the more prostitutes you have.
There are those, of course, who are rich and high class, but
the majority in the world are pathetically poor. Only women
themselves can stop the exploitation of their sex. The power
structure of men will never stop it. Abortion is so hard to
fight for the same reason. Any effort to halt the free
expression of man's lust will face enormous opposition.
Unless women organize to change the way things are the best
we can hope for is that, like Rahab, one by one there will be
those who escape this oldest profession to live a life of dignity
and respect. The second thing we want to focus on is-
II. HER PRESENT POSSESSION.
As we confront her in our text she is a woman of faith, and
not a woman of filth. She is intelligent and not immoral. She
is an impressive person who is decisive, and she makes a
choice to save her family at the risk of her own life. So much
is noble about Rahab that it is easy to see why one of the spies
fell for her. According to Jewish tradition one of these two
spies later married her, and she became a part of Israel, and a
mother in the blood line to Christ. Her son Boaz grew up to
marry Ruth the Moabite, who was another Gentile. With a
mother like her he had no fear of marrying a Gentile woman,
for he knew they could be marvelous. God did also, for both
of these Gentile women became a part of the blood line to the
Messiah.
Rahab possessed a keen intelligent mind. She kept up on
current events, and she knew what the God of Israel had
been doing. She listened to the news, and paid attention to
the changing times. She was ready to change to fit the new
circumstances that history was bringing. She could see her
people were doomed, and that the future was with Israel. She
was prepared to act on her faith in that future. It was not a
self-centered choice. She loved her family. She may have
been the black sheep of the family, and may have been
rejected for her decision to be a prostitute, but she did not
reject them. Her deal with the spies included her whole
family.
It is not true that a prostitute is incapable of love. Rahab
was one of the most loving daughters we have any record of in
the Bible. We do not know what her parents and siblings
thought of her, but we know how she felt about them. In
spite of her degrading profession she still possessed a deep
love for her whole family. People caught up in the most
degrading aspects of human life can still be very likeable and
loving people. Rahab still possessed the capacity, in spite of
all the lust and abuse she had seen, to see the beauty of what
God intended in the male-female relationship. I have read
stories and seen movies of prostitutes who fell in love and
made good wives. This is not fiction, but fact. Many
prostitutes have married and made wonderful respectable
wives. It takes a unique man to make it work, however, and
many men could not handle it. It was certainly providential
that one of the spies was just such a man.
What we see in Rahab is the other side of the depravity of
man. We see the dignity of man. We see that even in the
fallen state men and women still possess the shattered and
tattered image of God. Rahab had a lot of good qualities even
as a heathen harlot. That is why it is important for Christians
to approach all people from the point of view of respect. Even
the harlot has the capacity to respond to what is good, noble,
and righteous. The harlot has the same capacity to chose to
follow the light as anyone else. The result is we have a story
in the Bible of Jewish spies entering into an agreement with a
pagan prostitute. They made a treaty with her, and they
promised her deliverance because of her faith in the God of
Israel, and her action to preserve their lives.
Don't write people off because of who they are, or what
their past is. God providentially led the spies to Rahab for
her sake, and for a lesson to His people for all time. The
lesson is not that everybody will turn out good if given a chance,
for this is not so. The lesson is that people in every
category must be offered a chance, for no matter how
depraved they are, they can chose to trust God and rise to a
level of dignity and usefulness in the plan of God.
Jesus was virgin born, but lest anyone gets the idea that
God will not use anyone who is less than perfect, there are
women like Rahab in Christ's genealogy. The majority of the
human race is closer to Rahab than to Mary, and Jesus came
to seek and to save the fallen and the lost. The plan of
redemption cannot be fully seen by looking at Mary. We
need to see Rahab as well before the picture is complete.
Then, and only then, can we see the glory of God's amazing
grace. Had God consulted the Pharisees He would have been
told it was in bad taste to include a harlot in His Son's
genealogy. But God is not concerned about what people
were. He is concerned about whether or not they possess
faith. If they do, then that present possession can wipe away
the bolt of their past profession.
By faith Rahab saved her future husband by helping him
to escape. By faith she saved her whole family. By faith she
saved herself, and by faith she has saved many others because
God used her example in His Word so that many others
through history could see the good news of her deliverance,
and put their trust in the same God to deliver them. Like the
woman at the well, this Old Testament woman of ill repute
gained the reputation of being one of God's best tools for
evangelism. The last aspect of her life we want to focus on is-
III. HER FUTURE POSITION.
We are looking at what she became in history long after
she was gone from the stage of history. No one could ever
dream that a woman like Rahab could gain a position in
Israel, and in God's plan, that would make her a great
example. She was a Gentile, and a woman, and a prostitute.
The only possible way she could have sunk any lower would
have been to add to this list the term leper. She was, for all
practical purposes, the least likely person to ever become an
example for anyone, let alone the people of God. She
illustrates that a Gentile can become a Jew by faith and by
marriage, but more important, she illustrates a person in
darkness can become a great light by the grace of God.
It is important that we see that the Bible gives us great
examples of women who are redeemed so that we never think
they are secondary in God's plan. Lydia was the first
Christian convert in Europe, and Rahab was the first pagan
convert to Judaism in Canaan. All through history we see
that women are often the first to respond to the grace of God,
and they open the way for men to follow. Women are often
spiritual pioneers who blaze new trails that become highways
for millions.
There are other prostitutes who have become famous, but
none as famous as Rahab. As a youth, when I stood by her
grave on the hill outside Deadwood, South Dakota, I thought
that Calamity Jane was a great woman. I later learned that
she was one of the worst women who ever lived. She was a
foul mouthed, crude, and very unfeminine prostitute. But her
story illustrates two points I am trying to convey in this
message on Rahab. She was forced into prostitution by
society. Her parents with 6 children were pioneers, and
shortly after her mother died on the trail, her father died
when they reached Salt Lake City. The younger children
were taken by the state and put up for adoption. Jane was
15, and so she was left on her own. She became a prostitute
for survival. This is the way millions have become prostitutes
through history. A study in Paris in the year 1828 showed
that there were 1255 prostitutes in that profession because
they lost their parents, or were abandoned.
The more you read about the causes of prostitution, the
more compassion you have for those women who are in the
worst of all types of slavery. I cannot admire Calamity Jane
as I did in my youth, but neither can I despise her because of
what I have learned about her background. Jesus had such
compassion on sinners because He knew why people lived on
such a low level of immorality. It often takes us along time to
understand the reasons why people are what they are.
Calamity Jane also illustrates the fact that the worst have
something of the image of God in them yet. In 1878 when
smallpox swept through Deadwood, and people were dying
like flies, she worked day and night nursing the sick and
dying. The paper referred to her then as an angel of mercy.
She was a dark angel, to be sure, but she set an example.
Rahab's example is the greatest, however, for she
abandoned all other loyalties, and put her faith in God. She
risked everything, and even became a traitor to her state. She
rejected her pagan gods, and put her trust in the God of
Israel. This was a daring thing to do, but she did it and
became one of the only two women in Heb. 11 as great
examples of faith. Sarah is the other woman, and Sarah
means princess. So we have the princess and the prostitute,
the high and the low, but both are examples of great faith,
and they make it clear that faith is an open choice for all. No
one need miss God's best because of their past, however vile
and out of God's will. A present faith in Christ can lead
anyone to have a future position in God's eternal kingdom.
The story of Rahab gives hope to all the sinners of the world
that they too can become children of God by faith in the
Christ who will cast none out who come to Him in faith.
