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Covenant
of Blessing
Jeanne Stewart, Oklahoma She turned heads
when she walked in the market place. Every move she made spoke sensuous volumes
to the crowd of probing eyes. When she spoke, all bent forward closer to
hear, as every word mesmerized the senses of the power she carried throughout
the city. Offended women whispered under their breath as they turned and
walked away, in a self-important way disgraced in her presence. Men smiled as
they expressed their opinions of the day’s business. But this day, in the
midst of the noise within the market place, something caught her ear and what
she heard would change her life completely. New every morning are God’s mercies ~ Every new day brings the
mercies of God in heaven above and on His earth below. “For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then My
faithful love for you will remain, My covenant of blessing will never be
broken,” says the Lord who has mercy on you. (Isaiah 54:10) Only God alone can change
a misguided life. God has always had a plan that public opinion may not
perceive or understand. He will make use of people who have been scorned and
criticized for their wickedness or their degraded lifestyle. God in His
holiness judges the sincere and honest intentions of a repentant heart as
great faith. The holy achievements of those so changed are often ridiculed
and mocked by the self-righteous. These mockers appear as if they know the
entire situation, but truly understand nothing. It is only through God’s
authority and power that His plan will be accomplished – even in the lives of
transformed sinners. Consider then, that the
narrow views of people can hinder and stir up strife among the self-righteous
instead of strengthening the unity found growing among God-fearing
individuals. Hearing brings forth believing faith … I have a high regard for
Rahab the harlot. She is definitely a Romans chapter 10, believing-type of
woman. She did not have to see the great things God did for Israel as He
routed their enemies before them. She only had to hear about the mighty power
of God in their conquering battles to believe He was the One True God. “I was found by people who were not
looking for Me. I showed Myself to those who were not asking for Me.” (Romans
10:20) Rahab was a harlot, and
some say occupied a position status as priestess within the pagan Canaanite
religious culture of her day. Others believe she was little more than a
“keeper of a public house,” much like what today we would call a hotel
manager. However, scripture identifies her simply as a harlot and as such
could hardly be thought of as a righteous woman. On the contrary, she was
steeped in a wicked and vile lifestyle. She would certainly be shunned today
by polite, religious people, and would have faded into insignificance long
ago, had it not been for what she had heard and believed. In this wilderness region
near the Jordan River, Rahab was changed. Meeting the needs of the travelers
of the day, she would listen as the stories were told of a multitude of
people wandering across the desert of Zin, being led from victory to victory
by the One True God, Yahweh, God of Covenant. She was no doubt
impressed. She did not even have to see the mighty works, she only heard.
Somehow, in the midst of her wicked and perverse lifestyle, faith sprang to
life within the heart of this unlikely heroine of faith. Over a thousand
years before the resurrected Christ spoke the words, Rahab experienced the
covenant of blessing that comes from simply believing. Unlike Thomas in his
generation, she did not have to see it in order to believe it (John 20:29). Conquer the territory of the Promise Land ~ The children of Israel
had been without a homeland for four hundred years of bondage, then forty
years of wandering aimlessly in the desert. Moses, the leader of this
multitude, is now dead and his assistant Joshua leads the 12 tribes of the
children of Israel into the land promised to them by God. This promise was
made to Abraham and his descendants that they would be a great nation in
Canaan, but on the condition they remain faithful and obedient to God. We now set in motion the
fulfillment of that promise beginning in the second chapter of the Book of
Joshua. He sends out two spies into the area across the Jordan River around
Jericho to bring back a report of what they would behold in the land that had
been promised as their new homeland. House of Rahab was a perfect place for spies to stay ~ Because of the
constant flow of traffic within this public house contained by the walls of
the city of Jericho, God had sovereignly led these two spies to the one
person in Jericho who believed in Him. Rahab’s faith was based on God’s
mighty deeds she had heard about. Remarks of how Israel had conquered pagan
kings and their armies by God’s power had reached Jericho and the people
feared Israel’s power in battle. “God
makes His wonderful works to be remembered.” (Psalm 111:4) Rahab’s request to the
spies further indicates her level of faith in Israel’s God, as we read in
Joshua 2:12-13. “Now swear to me by the
Lord that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give
me some guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along
with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.”
To escape the city there
would be hanging outside of Rahab’s window on the wall of the city, a
blood-red cord to be used in climbing down, thereby saving Rahab and her
household from death as Israel conquered the city. The blood-red cord hanging
in the window illustrates Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Christ shed
His blood and hung on the cross to save us. James 2:25 speaks of Rahab the
prostitute as an example of both faith and good works being praised, showing
us the greatness of sin and the pardoning mercy of true repentance. Covenant blessing is an agreement of divine favor ~ Now we could
take the self-righteous attitude, like others before us, that Rahab would
always be a harlot. But then we would not perceive God’s divine favor and
plan that changed this woman after leaving Jericho as she became an important
link in the families of Israel. God advanced Rahab from a pagan prostitute
priestess to a Princess in Israel, making a way of escape out of the evils of
abomination into a covenant blessing relationship as the wife of Salmon from
the tribe of Judah. Rahab is in the Hall of Faith and is a part of the
genealogy of ancestors in the lineage of Christ Jesus, the Lion of Judah, our
Messiah (Matthew 1:5). Let us as the
family of God live in unity believing in our Redeemer’s covenant blessing. It
is an agreement of divine favor with each one of us, as with Rahab, changing
our hearts from the inside out … “For then FAITH comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God.” ~ Romans 10:17 ~ |
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