Determined to be Courageous

Our focus today is a woman who encountered the scandalous grace of God! Many of us have had to live down labels, reputations, nicknames, or the way others might see us. Rehab was a woman labeled with a reputation no woman would ever desire: she was known as a harlot, a prostitute, or a lady of the night. Scandalous!

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So, they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there (Joshua 2:1). It’s interesting that out of all the places to lodge, these two men end up in the home of a harlot. 

Rahab owned a house, built on the outer walls of Jericho. Rahab turned the roof of her home into a hiding place for these two spies, an act of determination and courage. She tells the two men “I know that the Lord has given this land to you. The people of Jericho are terrified because they have heard how the Lord Jehovah dried up the waters of the Red Sea to deliver you from Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan." She asked them to spare her family because she had protected them. 

Then, she arranged their escape by utilizing a rope out her window. The two spies agreed and told her to tie a scarlet cord to her window as a sign of their promise of protection when they invade. When Israel took over Jericho, they spared Rahab and her whole family just as they had promised. 

The woman, who was labeled as a harlot, became the mother of Boaz and the great-great-grandmother of King David. Because of her great determination and courage to trust in the God of Israel, Rahab, the former prostitute and sinner, became part of the line of Jesus Christ Himself. This scandalous woman with a bad reputation was inducted into the hall of faith in Hebrews 11:31—she is the only woman, besides Sarah, named in Hebrews 11.  

If you are not proud of a portion of your past don’t despair. God’s grace is more than sufficient to redeem and transform your past, present, and future. When the lies of the enemy remind you of your past, be determined to stand courageously in the grace of Jehovah God! When men and women experience what it feels like to live fully alive and embrace freedom, the labels of our past and the pain from them begin to slowly fade as God’s love covers them all. 

Take a few minutes and ask God if there are any lies from the enemy that he is using against you right now. Take a moment to pray and confess that to God. Ask Him for the truth to replace the lies and declare those truth statements over yourself.