We should technically be in week 6 this week, but I want to combine week 6 and the first part of week 7 focusing on the story of Rahab. Before we talk specifically about Rahab we need to understand something about the Canaanites in general. Part of their religious practice involved temple prostitution. In order to please the gods of fertility and to ensure future harvests they had prostitutes permanently employed by the temples. These prostitutes were not disrespected but were actually very respected. They were seen as mediators between the gods and people. In some cases they were as venerated as the priests. This is the world of Rahab.
We are introduced to Rahab the prostitute in this chapter. Now, even if she is not sacred prostitute of a temple, she is not the social outcast we imagine in our context of the word. In her culture there was nothing wrong with what she did for a living. For us, and the ancient Jews for whom this story is recorded, Rahab is the quintessential sinner. Amazingly, we’re about to find out this pagan hooker had more faith than the Israelites. But first, lets get the fuller picture of whom Rahab is.
There are several sexual innuendos in this part of the story that lose their innuendoeyness (it’s a word) because of language and culture differences.
1. The spies go, without explanation, straight to the prostitute’s house. It could be they thought this would draw the least attention since dudes were constantly going in and out of the house anyway. It could be that they thought this might be the best place to get some good intel on the city…since dudes were constantly going in and out. It could be that Rahab rented a room and this was the only space available. OR, it could be that the spies wanted to mix business with pleasure. There’s no way to tell, but the fact that there’s strangely no explanation means the author probably wanted to leave that option open.
2. The spies “stayed there”. The word for stay here is shakab. It’s a lot like our word sleep. It doesn’t literally mean anything sexual, but was often a slang way to refer to sex. “We slept together” has nothing to do with sleep. Capeesh? Using this word in a story about a prostitute would stand out to the Jewish reader as possibly meaning more than “stayed there.”
3. Rahab’s name means broad. Nothing tricky here. It’s the same way we use the word; a super-casual and often objectifying way to refer to a woman.
4. When the king’s men show up they tell Rahab to give up the men who “came to you and stayed here.” A more literal reading of text is give up the men “who entered into you.” That’s pretty messed up.
All of this is to say Rahab is as Canaanite as you can get. The author purposefully includes all of these innuendos and sexual references to exaggerate the point that there is nothing good in Rahab. There is seemingly nothing redeemable about her. She is a pagan worshiping harlot who is so scandalous she may have even seduced some of Israel’s men. It is against this backdrop that we start to see Rahab as one of the heroes of the story. THE hero of the story.
What Rahab says about God and about Israel is remarkable. The theme through chapter 6 is that Israel has been wondering around the desert for 40 years because of a lack of faith, and the whole time they’re out there they keep saying “God has brought us out here to die!” But Rahab says “I know Yahweh has given you this land.” She says she knows she and her people should be terrified of Israel because Yahweh will do what he said he would do. She has more faith even than Joshua. If he completely trusted God why would he send out spies? She even recounts to the spies how God brought Israel through the Red Sea. And then, if that stuff weren’t enough, she says “the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” This phrase is only used by three people in scripture: by Moses, by the wise king Solomon, and once by a prostitute.
Rahab does not seem to be the likely choice to round out the trifecta of faith heroes with Moses and Solomon, but she is! Because of her faith and trust in God’s power she get’s grafted into the family of God. She gets adopted into Israel, not by genetics, but by faith. She marries Salmon and becomes the mother of Boaz, the husband of Ruth. Rahab is the great, great grandmother of King David and is in the direct ancestral line of Jesus! She is listed in Hebrews 11 among other heroes of the faith. James uses her as an example of what is looks like to act on faith.
So, here are the Israelites, God’s chosen people with the law and the tabernacle and the priests, they have been brought through the Red Sea, have been eating magical bread and quail that falls from the sky every day and figure out where to travel based on which direction the giant pillar of fire moves; yet their constant complaint is, “God has forgotten us. He brought us here to die.” Then there’s the pagan prostitute who has no miracles or reasons to believe who says, “I know Yahweh will give you this land and we should be terrified of you.” God looks at that genuine faith and says, “I like that. You’re in.”
For the rest of scripture Rahab is continually referred to as “Rahab the prostitute” or “Rahab the harlot”. She is never able to get rid of this unfortunate moniker. I think this is because God wants to continually remind us of his grace to the sinner. God constantly reminds us of her past to emphasize what faith does in someone’s life.
Implications: 1 Rahab was saved by faith, not religious perfection. So are we. 2 Someone can be saved by faith and still be in the sinful situation they lived in before. Clearly, as growth happens some things need to change, but that doesn’t mean perfection happens over night or God kicks you out on your butt. 3 God saves the unlikelies. Not just saves, but lifts up, exalts and uses them for his Kingdom.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
The Story Week 4
I regret that we don’t have time to pull all the great stuff out of this part of the Story. This chapter has some of the most important narrative in the OT. From this point on all the major figures in the OT refer back to the deliverance and parting of the sea as God’s greatest show of power and love for Israel. When God speaks in the Old Testament He often tells the people to remember this event to encourage their faith.
But we don’t have time to go through all of this. We could devote an entire study to the plagues and how they reveal God’s supremacy over the gods of Egypt. They had a god of the desert, a god with a frog head, a sun god, a god of the Nile, and others. Each plague symbolically defeats one of these gods. But we don’t’ have time to talk about these (except for the last plague, which we’ll get to later).
Because we are short on time we are going to focus our attention on the conversation God has with Moses in the desert. I firmly believe this is one of the most important passages in the entire Old Testament. We learn so much about God, His intentions, His character and about the over all story from this one section.
Moses is herding sheep in the desert when he sees something quite odd. A bush is on fire but is not actually burning up. As he approaches The Angel of the Lord appears in the bush. (Who do we know this to be from 2 weeks ago?) God speaks to Moses from the bush and tells him that he is the one God wants to use to bring deliverance to Israel. Moses clearly doesn’t want to be part of this so he offers 4 reasons why God should pick someone else.
1. I’m the wrong kind of person.
Moses says, “Who am I?” What he’s getting at is “I’m the wrong type of person. I’m not important enough. I’m a simple shepherd, not a political or religious leader. I’m a murderer, not a saint. I’m not only a nobody, I’m a messed up nobody.”
God’s response to this argument is so simple and beautiful; I’ll be with you. It’s interesting that God’s response to Moses has nothing to do with Moses. He doesn’t say, “No no Moses. You’re amazing.” It doesn’t matter how who Moses is. It matters who God is.
2. I don’t know enough about you.
When the first argument doesn’t go anywhere Moses moves to, “Well, I just don’t know enough about you. What if they ask me your name? I don’t know your name, I don’t know who you are or what you’re like. I just don’t know enough.”
God’s response to this argument is also simple, “Ok, this is who I am.”
3. I’m not good at this type of thing.
Next Moses thinks maybe he will get out of this by pointing out that he isn’t a good speaker. He has a stutter. “I’ll sound like an idiot, they’ll make fun of me.”
At this point you can start to pick up on God getting a little frustrated with Moses. His response sounds a little like, “Hey dummy! Who created the tongue to begin with? Do you think I can’t give you ability to speak clearly if I want?”
4. I just don’t want to.
In this last argument Moses doesn’t even try offer a reason, he just says he doesn’t want to. Every excuse has been deflated by God’s responses and Moses resorts to “Ummm….no. I just don’t want to.”
God is beyond frustrated. He gets angry and tells Moses his place. He tells Moses he isn’t getting out of this and to go get on it.
Now, I want to go back and look at the second argument and God’s answer for a second. Not only does God refute Moses’ argument here, He reveals something very intimate and personal about Himself here. He tells Moses His personal name, which reveals a few things about God’s nature. When Moses says, “Who should I say sent me?” God says, “Tell them I Am who I Am sent you.” After this He says “Tell them Yahweh (the Story translation says The Lord God) sent you, and this is my name forever.” The names I Am and Yahweh are very important.
The first thing to know is that Yahweh (yhvh) and “I Am” (ehyeh) are deeply related. They both come from the Hebrew word “Hayah” (hyh) which means “to be”. When God tells Moses His name, how He would be known to Pharaoh and the Israelites, He doesn’t come up with a flashy dramatic name, (I am Thordox the Mighty, Destroyer of Puppies!!!). He simply says I exist. Tell them My name is “I am.” Some scholars think it should be read I will be who I will be. What God is saying with this statement is “I always have been, I am, and I always will be. And WHO I always have been is who I am and it is who I always will be. I am unchanging.” So, in this simple answer, God reveals that He is the only God who really “is” and that He is unchanging.
The second thing this small section reveals is that God wants to be known. There are over 260 names for God in the Bible. All of them, except one, are either a title, or just a description (i.e. Elohim is a title, God our healer is a description). However, here God reveals His personal name. The only reason He would tell us His name is He wants us to know Him personally. This in itself is an invitation to relationship. By revealing His actual personal name God is saying to Moses, and to all people, “I’m not content with you simply knowing I exist and that I’m some sort of deity. I want you to know who I am. I have a character and a personality, and I am knowable.”
Moses finally goes and it doesn’t go so well with Pharaoh. Not only does Pharaoh say no, he makes the work harder for the Israelites. Guess who is not a popular guy right now. I’ll give you a hint, it sound’s like Shmoses. In order to bend Pharaoh’s will God executes 10 plagues. The last one is the most important: The death of every firstborn in the whole land.
The only way the Israelites can avoid being included in this plague is to partake in the first Passover. They were to choose a perfect lamb, inspect it for a week, slaughter it, roast it over a fire and apply it’s blood to the door posts of the their houses. This is another case where God is foreshadowing His ultimate plan in Jesus. In fact, this is one of the most intense foreshadowing moments in the OT. Jesus is the perfect lamb whom God Himself selected. One week before his death he entered Jerusalem and was questioned and examined by the Pharisees who could find no fault in him. He was slaughtered and experienced God’s judgment (often symbolized by fire). And now, the only way for a person so avoid the final death is to apply the blood of Jesus to his or her life.
So, here’s the take home; here’s what we do with this. See yourself as Moses. Realize that God is calling you bring deliverance to people around you, people in slavery to the hopeless life of sin apart from Him. Like Moses we offer the same pointless arguments. We think things like “I’m not important enough or the right kind of person. I don’t know enough about God. I’m not good at that.” And when all of those excuses fall short we are forced to admit, we often just don’t want to do what it takes to bring people to Jesus. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary. What if they get offended? What if they think I’m stupid? What if I mess up? I just don’t have the time. Blah Blah Blah…in reality, we just don’t want to.
Like Moses, we need to get past our excuses for not bringing the hope of freedom to others. This freedom only comes through our perfect Passover Lamb, Jesus. He died and absorbed God’s wrath, which should have been put on us, so that death would pass us over.
But we don’t have time to go through all of this. We could devote an entire study to the plagues and how they reveal God’s supremacy over the gods of Egypt. They had a god of the desert, a god with a frog head, a sun god, a god of the Nile, and others. Each plague symbolically defeats one of these gods. But we don’t’ have time to talk about these (except for the last plague, which we’ll get to later).
Because we are short on time we are going to focus our attention on the conversation God has with Moses in the desert. I firmly believe this is one of the most important passages in the entire Old Testament. We learn so much about God, His intentions, His character and about the over all story from this one section.
Moses is herding sheep in the desert when he sees something quite odd. A bush is on fire but is not actually burning up. As he approaches The Angel of the Lord appears in the bush. (Who do we know this to be from 2 weeks ago?) God speaks to Moses from the bush and tells him that he is the one God wants to use to bring deliverance to Israel. Moses clearly doesn’t want to be part of this so he offers 4 reasons why God should pick someone else.
1. I’m the wrong kind of person.
Moses says, “Who am I?” What he’s getting at is “I’m the wrong type of person. I’m not important enough. I’m a simple shepherd, not a political or religious leader. I’m a murderer, not a saint. I’m not only a nobody, I’m a messed up nobody.”
God’s response to this argument is so simple and beautiful; I’ll be with you. It’s interesting that God’s response to Moses has nothing to do with Moses. He doesn’t say, “No no Moses. You’re amazing.” It doesn’t matter how who Moses is. It matters who God is.
2. I don’t know enough about you.
When the first argument doesn’t go anywhere Moses moves to, “Well, I just don’t know enough about you. What if they ask me your name? I don’t know your name, I don’t know who you are or what you’re like. I just don’t know enough.”
God’s response to this argument is also simple, “Ok, this is who I am.”
3. I’m not good at this type of thing.
Next Moses thinks maybe he will get out of this by pointing out that he isn’t a good speaker. He has a stutter. “I’ll sound like an idiot, they’ll make fun of me.”
At this point you can start to pick up on God getting a little frustrated with Moses. His response sounds a little like, “Hey dummy! Who created the tongue to begin with? Do you think I can’t give you ability to speak clearly if I want?”
4. I just don’t want to.
In this last argument Moses doesn’t even try offer a reason, he just says he doesn’t want to. Every excuse has been deflated by God’s responses and Moses resorts to “Ummm….no. I just don’t want to.”
God is beyond frustrated. He gets angry and tells Moses his place. He tells Moses he isn’t getting out of this and to go get on it.
Now, I want to go back and look at the second argument and God’s answer for a second. Not only does God refute Moses’ argument here, He reveals something very intimate and personal about Himself here. He tells Moses His personal name, which reveals a few things about God’s nature. When Moses says, “Who should I say sent me?” God says, “Tell them I Am who I Am sent you.” After this He says “Tell them Yahweh (the Story translation says The Lord God) sent you, and this is my name forever.” The names I Am and Yahweh are very important.
The first thing to know is that Yahweh (yhvh) and “I Am” (ehyeh) are deeply related. They both come from the Hebrew word “Hayah” (hyh) which means “to be”. When God tells Moses His name, how He would be known to Pharaoh and the Israelites, He doesn’t come up with a flashy dramatic name, (I am Thordox the Mighty, Destroyer of Puppies!!!). He simply says I exist. Tell them My name is “I am.” Some scholars think it should be read I will be who I will be. What God is saying with this statement is “I always have been, I am, and I always will be. And WHO I always have been is who I am and it is who I always will be. I am unchanging.” So, in this simple answer, God reveals that He is the only God who really “is” and that He is unchanging.
The second thing this small section reveals is that God wants to be known. There are over 260 names for God in the Bible. All of them, except one, are either a title, or just a description (i.e. Elohim is a title, God our healer is a description). However, here God reveals His personal name. The only reason He would tell us His name is He wants us to know Him personally. This in itself is an invitation to relationship. By revealing His actual personal name God is saying to Moses, and to all people, “I’m not content with you simply knowing I exist and that I’m some sort of deity. I want you to know who I am. I have a character and a personality, and I am knowable.”
Moses finally goes and it doesn’t go so well with Pharaoh. Not only does Pharaoh say no, he makes the work harder for the Israelites. Guess who is not a popular guy right now. I’ll give you a hint, it sound’s like Shmoses. In order to bend Pharaoh’s will God executes 10 plagues. The last one is the most important: The death of every firstborn in the whole land.
The only way the Israelites can avoid being included in this plague is to partake in the first Passover. They were to choose a perfect lamb, inspect it for a week, slaughter it, roast it over a fire and apply it’s blood to the door posts of the their houses. This is another case where God is foreshadowing His ultimate plan in Jesus. In fact, this is one of the most intense foreshadowing moments in the OT. Jesus is the perfect lamb whom God Himself selected. One week before his death he entered Jerusalem and was questioned and examined by the Pharisees who could find no fault in him. He was slaughtered and experienced God’s judgment (often symbolized by fire). And now, the only way for a person so avoid the final death is to apply the blood of Jesus to his or her life.
So, here’s the take home; here’s what we do with this. See yourself as Moses. Realize that God is calling you bring deliverance to people around you, people in slavery to the hopeless life of sin apart from Him. Like Moses we offer the same pointless arguments. We think things like “I’m not important enough or the right kind of person. I don’t know enough about God. I’m not good at that.” And when all of those excuses fall short we are forced to admit, we often just don’t want to do what it takes to bring people to Jesus. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary. What if they get offended? What if they think I’m stupid? What if I mess up? I just don’t have the time. Blah Blah Blah…in reality, we just don’t want to.
Like Moses, we need to get past our excuses for not bringing the hope of freedom to others. This freedom only comes through our perfect Passover Lamb, Jesus. He died and absorbed God’s wrath, which should have been put on us, so that death would pass us over.
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