March meeting report
What kind of Love is this?
This month we heard about Rahab – a prostitute. Some people might say she was one of the ‘lowest of the low’. Even today, we don’t rate them very highly, do we? Prostitutes! How could anything good come about through one of these….people!
But God had a plan for Rahab, just as He has for each of us. The people in Jericho had heard about God ‘through the grapevine’: that He’d made a DRY path through the mighty Jordan River, for THE ISRAELITES TO WALK ACROSS – ALL of them – about two million people! Wow! How did God do that? HE MUST BE VERY POWERFUL…THE GOD OF THE ISRAELITES MUST BE VERY POWERFUL! The word spread and they were scared.
Now, along came two of these Jews to do a recce of this city – to see how they could attack and destroy it and all the people in it. They found their way to Rahab’s house, which was built into the vast city wall. She was not afraid but took them in and, when the King’s men came to find them, she hid them and told the King’s men the Jews had already left…a prostitute AND A LIAR! Off went the King’s men, then off went the two spies, up into the hills where they’d be safe, as Rahab had said.
The Bible says without faith we CANNOT please God. Rahab proved her faith in ‘the God of the Israelites’ by helping the two spies – which would have meant the death penalty for her had the King found out. However, the KING OF KINGS saw her faith and kept her and all her family safe when the destruction of Jericho came.
Not only did God keep Rahab’s family safe, He placed her in the lineage of Jesus. She married Salmon, one of the two spies. Four generations later, King David was born. Twenty six generations after David, Jesus was born.
What kind of Love is this, that Rahab – once a prostitute – should have her name listed in the forebears of our Lovely Lord & Saviour?
Whatever has happened in your past, whatever is going on in your life now, Jesus can deal with it and give you a fresh start – a new life!
