When Opportunity Knocks

A series on meeting God – Rahab
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Joshua 2 

[We all have a story about how we met God. Some are more miraculous than others, but none more amazing than the mere fact that the Living God, our Creator, reached out to bring us into relationship with him. In this series, we will be looking at how people in the Bible met God, and what that means to you today.]

  

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

—Michael Jordan

 

Opportunity knocked for Michael Jordan. His success is well documented. He won six NBA championships while earning five MVP awards. Beyond basketball, Jordan built a business empire through endorsements and savvy business decisions.

 

Opportunity also knocked for Rahab the prostitute. Men who were traveling would stay at her house. As a result, Rahab had heard many reports circulating about the nation of Israel who were camped nearby just east of the Jordan River.

 

She’d heard how the Israelite’s God had miraculously dried up the Red Sea to escape Egypt. How He had destroyed the two Amorite kings. And now the nation was camped nearby. Fear melted the hearts of the citizens of Jericho. Then, opportunity knocked, literally at Rahab’s door.

 

It was two Israelite men who had been sent as spies. As she let them enter her home, she saw an opportunity. She hid them on her roof, and then risking everything, lied to the king’s men. She gave the spies valuable intel that would help Israel to defeat Jericho. Then she helped them escape.

 

But before she sent them away, she asked them not to harm her or her family.

 

^12a “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.             NIV

 

Rahab had already given them the intel they needed so they easily could have said no and left. Instead, they made a vow for Rahab and her family to be spared, to be shown mercy, to be redeemed.

 

Rahab confessed to the spies that “the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below”. Rahab the prostitute; the Canaanite; the heathen; had acted on her faith in the Israelite God. And because of her faith, history was changed.

 

God used her not only to help Joshua to victory in his initial campaign as the new leader. But also, to continue His plan of redemption. She became the great-great-grandmother of King David, making her a direct ancestor of Jesus.

 

Faith results in a changed life. Rahab didn’t let her past define her future. And because of that she was praised for her faith in the “Hall of Faith”. And for her deeds she was compared with Abraham’s faith.

 

³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.        NIV    Hebrews 11

 

²⁵ In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?                   NIV    James 2

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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