Joshua chapters 2,5,6,7
Much can be drawn from these chapters, and would encourage anyone to take out your bible to read these chapters before proceedings (though you can read this blog before hand too as it is a good stand alone message for anyone). If you don’t have a bible the Blue letter bible is a great free resource with many different translations for better understanding.
We see that when the children of Israel had sent spies into Jericho, they came to a prostitute named Rahab, and for all purposes Rahab was as some could say the sinner of sinners but what saved her life was not the life she had lived but the faith she had shown. She was condemned by the law of moses as an adulterer, she most likely worshipped false gods. She had heard of the great thing this “yahweh”, elohim (god) of Israel had done through the Hebrew’s and had the same options, the same free will, as any nation God had brought his people against. Instead of a spirit of fear she chose to reach out in faith to a god she had never worshipped, to a people who were not her own and humbled herself before Gods people and saved not only herself but her entire family (who may or may not have held her life choices in high regard). Eventually we see her faith not only rewarded momentarily but in the book of Matthew she was indeed in the bloodline that lead up to another Joshua, who would be known throughout the world as Jesus. Also being named with all of the great people of faith in Hebrew’s 11.
When God uses people he knows them, and he chose her not for her past but for her future. For all of her sins were as great as any other but God knew her before she was born. God had a plan for her, not of destruction but for grace, mercy and a shining example of the kind of woman God loves and uses. Her sins were not what defined her. Her past did not hold to her like a ball and chain. Though she probably still had the memories of her past life before, all of that did not amount to the great rewards she received on earth and notably in heaven. Though she was born a sinner she was reborn that day a daughter of God and as much partook a reward with the children of Israel as a child of Israel.
Now I don’t know what happened to her family afterward but her faith saved them from destruction in Jericho. So when you see family not following Christ you can know without fear that your example of faith can be what saves your family and not have anxiety, because God has preserved us faithful when we ourselves were unfaithful. If your life has not been saved by Jesus blood yet, know that all things can be new again, and the latter days of your life can be greater than the former by your faith in his redemption. If you have sorrow, he can heal it. If you have wronged yourself, your family, your friends, he can forgive it and show you to be redeemed before your peers not as a prostitute (literally and figuratively) not as a worshipper of other gods, money, self or whatever have you but a daughter. This is what being saved means. Not simply a redemption in the afterlife as a life insurance, but immediately in this life. Salvation is the redemption of your life immediately from your past and into eternity.
This is a new year, and though it may be better or worse, this year you can be renewed. This year you can see things around you falling apart, but you too can be preserved yourself and those in your family. You may not have to be tried as Rahab, the redeemed and faithful woman by Gods grace (true hero) , but in 2021 you can lay down your burden, you can reach out to God. You can be redeemed by faith in Jesus and his blood, and be sealed with his name on your life. Today is the day you can find redemption while the walls fall around you.
The Path Less Traveled 