GOD’S COMPASSION FOR RAHAB
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
JOSHUA 2:8-13 6: 16-17
Key Verse
“But the city shall be designated for destruction, it and everything in it belongs to the Lord; only Rahab the harlot and all that are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent”.
Joshua6:17
INTRODUCTION.
It is sometimes difficult to separate belief, that is, what you think you accept as true, and faith but one should think about it in this way. You hear something and you listen to the facts presented to you, and then you decide whether or not to accept it. At that stage you have gone through two processes. The first is that you hear, and the second is that you listen and accept what you hear as being true. Then comes the last step which is to commit yourself to follow what those facts that you have heard have led you to. That is commonly what is called biblical faith and it involves commitment to what you accept as true.
Our Lesson Study illustrates this faith that God wants from everyone who is living on the earth. This faith God loves is shown to us in a woman called Rahab who lived in the city called Jericho. It was a powerful city, well fortified. It was located at the entrance to the land of Canaan and so anyone that wanted to come into the land of Canaan would have to pass them first and go through their examination. They were partnered to the other powerful city States deep in the land and all the people in the land of Canaan had military arrangements that were set up to protect themselves from invaders. The walls of Jericho were strong and in fact we know that they were double walls. So when Joshua led the children of Israel to the doorstep of Canaan they faced two very difficult challenges. First they had to cross the river Jordan and that River was in flood stage so that people could hardly cross that raging water.
But God had a plan. He did not want the people of Israel to believe that they were strong and mighty and could overcome this terrible dangers that they faced. He told Joshua that He would tell them what to do for GOD had decided to give the land of Canaan over to the nation of Israel. So God had a marvellous plan. He told the priests and the army to circle around the city of Jericho after they had crossed the River Jordan when God had stopped the flow of the flood waters so that they could cross it safely. Then they were to march around the city of Jericho quietly after crossing the raging Jordan River.
Crossing that Raging river was a big miracle that God had done. Then the priests and the army walked around the city of Jericho for 6 days and on the 7th day they blew the trumpets and the people shouted and the walls of Jericho fell flat.
You can imagine the fear and consternation of the people of Jericho. What you would have thought that since they knew what God intended to do they would surrender and not fight.
But that was not all for the people of Jericho knew that God had been bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt with His mighty hand and had taken them through the wilderness where they defeated several powerful kings and finally brought them face to face with the armies of Jericho.
Only one woman believed that the Lord God Almighty was well able to defeat that powerful city. Joshua had sent two spies to check out the land and she met the spies and hid them from the King of Jericho who certainly would want to kill them. Because off what she did these soldiers of God promised that when they captured the city and killed everyone in it her life and the lives of her family would be spared as long as she stayed in her house on the walls of the city and hung a red cord over the wall to show exactly where she was with her family.
Joshua led the army and Jericho’s wall collapsed. The army and Joshua rescued Rahab and her family because she had believed that the Lord God Almighty was sovereign and ruled over all the armies and the people of the world and that whatever He wanted to do would in fact be achieved. She feared God because she heard about what God had done. She had lived and carefully to the news, and she committed herself to become a follower of God Almighty.
Several places in Scripture speaks of the great faith of Rahab. She was the only one in that city who had heard about the news of the coming people of Israel, who had believed it, and who had committed herself to support the people of God.
That is the kind of faith that God wants from us. He wants us to hear His words listen to them carefully, think about them carefully, come to understand that He is God and there is no other God beside Him, and that He has control over everything and everyone on the earth. When you come to this faith in God you will become His child and He will bring you into His family and will bless you, and among the great blessings you will receive from Him will be that of eternal life. So let us all trust in God committing ourselves to Him and what He has told us is about Himself so that we will live with Him forever.