The Bible is a chronicle of ordinary and imperfect people who found mercy and favour with God. In Hebrews 11, we read about the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and others who did exploits for God. In that same dossier of faith is a certain harlot.
An unusual ally
The children of Israel wandered around the wilderness for 40 years. Then finally, God instructed them to go in and possess the Promised Land.
But Jericho stood between the people and the promise they had been seeking for 470 years (including 430 years in Egypt).
God had spoken and it must come to pass. Jericho must certainly fall. So, Joshua sent out spies to view the land and the spies ended up in the house of a harlot named Rahab (Joshua 2).
Rahab lived on the city wall. Her trade was no secret. This made it easy for the city paparazzi to pick up the arrival of foreign-looking men.
When word got out, the King requested that Rahab produce the men.
This is where the legend of Rahab began. She hid the men and sent the search party off in the wrong direction.
What was needed to ensure the safe passage of the spies required a special vessel. It was only a Rahab that could have served that specific purpose. Rahab, the city harlot played an unusual role in the fulfilment of God's promises.
We are all Rahab
You may be thinking your life is too messed up. Take a step back. Aren't we all a mess of different kinds?
The Bible declares:
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard (Romans 3:23, NLT).
Rahab is not just a Bible character from a far-gone era. Rahab is all of us and all of us are Rahab.
Grace seeker
Rahab was unapologetic in her lifestyle. In the same way, she would become unapologetic in aggressively seeking grace.
You could be in a puddle of mess right now. I can assure you that there's a purpose in that puddle. That purpose will come to life if grace finds its way into your messy situation.
Like Rahab, you just need to recognize your moment of grace. You need to seize that moment when grace shows up right on your messy doorstep. It could be that the moment is now, as you read this message.
Rahab needed to choose whether to be on the winning or losing side. She hid the spies, thus saving their lives, and then quickly made a destiny-changing pitch.
She wanted her entire family to be spared. She could not keep the grace of God to herself. She wanted the same grace that she had found to be available for her family as well.
Rahab negotiated for the preservation of her family. Her family and all that belonged to her would escape the carnage when the city eventually fell.
That is grace manifesting where it is best needed - in a mess, in crises, and when all hope is lost, the same way water finds the lowest places to fill.
Grace for every situation
Grace is when God meets a man or woman with the love and favour they don't deserve.
Roy and Revel Hession, authors of the book 'We Would See Jesus" said: God's grace is an attribute of God which governs His attitude to men.
Simply put, grace is God's love language in His relationship with men.
God's grace produces unusual results because it tends to work best in messy situations.
This is why Rehab became a key figure in the redemption of mankind. Rahab is the prostitute whose lineage produced Jesus, the Saviour of the world (Matthew 1:5).
For you my friend, when grace comes to your home or life, don't turn it away. Be like Rahab.
Receive grace and it will power your life into a new hope and greatness - just like Rahab.