Trust Like Rahab

Trust in the Lord with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Have you ever been in a situation that you need to do the right thing, but no-one else is doing it? It’s almost like you know what you have to do, and it may be hard to do, and no-one else gets it, you might not even get it, but it’s the right thing. And sometimes you don’t understand why? But, you step out in faith and do it anyway…no matter what the cost.

Rahab was this kind of a girl. Super brave and super different.

See, Moses had died and God had called Joshua to lead the Israelites into the promised land. But, before they went, Joshua sent a couple of spies to see what it was like in Jericho, the first city in the promised land that needed to be conquered.

Now, Jericho had big walls around it. So the spies snuck into this walled city and came to the home of a woman named Rahab.

Now Rahab had a past. She was a prostitute. Did she like that? I don’t think so. I bet she felt a lot of shame and guilt because of her choices. I don’t think people thought much of her either and her life must have been hard.

The moment Rahab met the spies, she knew for some reason they were God’s people. She told the spies that she knew that the Lord had given the Israelites this land, that their God was the supreme God of the heavens and earth. I wonder if deep inside Rahab had hope of a better life, a different way. Maybe she dreamed of a God that could love her, because she might not have felt loved much in her adult life.

The people of Jericho were terrified of the Israelites, because they had heard all that God had done…parting the Red Sea and delivering them from the Egyptians. This news made them very afraid to even fight a battle with the Israelites.

Now, Rahab knew that the Jericho people would be upset if she was caught with the spies. So, she hid them on her roof to later help them escape.

Some of the Jericho guards came to her home questioning if she had spoken with the spies. And she told them she did, but that they had already left. The guards left and at the night they lowered the gaits of the walls so no-one could leave.

When Rahab knew the spies could escape safely, she went to the roof to help them. Now, Rahab’s home was located near the outside wall, so she helped the spies escape by dropping a rope out her window and helped them climb down the rope and out of Jericho.

But before they left, she asked the spies that when the Israelites did come, they would spare her and her family. The spies told her to gather her family in her home and hang a starlet rope from her window, and they would tell their people to not attack her.

And that is exactly what happened. When the Israelites attacked, they spared Rahab and her entire family and she and her family lived with the Israelites after.

How did Rahab know that the Israelites God was the One true God? She didn’t personally ever learn about God, so how would she have known?

She chose to trust in the Lord with all of her heart and lean not on her own understanding.

There are going to be a lot of times in our lives we’re not going to understand things. Maybe it’s what the Lord is doing in your life, or maybe you read something in the Bible that you don’t quite get, or God might call you to do something you don’t understand… but, that is when we’re going to have to choose to trust, even when we don’t really get it.

Like Rahab, she chose to trust, even though she didn’t really get it. And because of that trust, God saved her and her family. And God blessed her to be part of the lineage of Christ.

There will be times in life where we’re just going to have to choose to trust, and not lean on our own understanding. And when we acknowledge God, just like Rahab did, God promises to make our paths straight.

Blooming Challenge: Choose to trust Him today, no matter what!

Recommended reading:

Proverbs 3: 5-6

Joshua 2