Were you eager to get your driver’s license when you were a teenager? I sure was.
In fact, once I had my license, my mom promised to buy me a used car. Money was tight and so I knew the choices would be limited. I decided to ask just one thing: please promise that the car would not be the color green. In my mind, green was the worst, most embarrassing color for a car.
The plan was for Mom to accompany her trusted mechanic to a used car auction. The mission? Find the most safe and reliable car within mom’s budget.
When they returned and I saw my new car for the first time, I couldn’t believe my eyes. When I opened the driver’s door and looked inside, I was even more shocked. The car was green – both inside and out.
Incredulous, I just looked at my mom. She tried to explain that this really was the best car for the money—it ran well, had low mileage, and should last several years. Ironically, the car lasted just a few months after my younger brother secretly took it out for a spin and promptly burned out the clutch.
My next car was even older and uglier but looking back, I was fortunate to have a car at all – and to have a mom who kept her promise.
But she’s not the only one . . .
Long before Jesus stepped foot on the Earth before David was crowned king, before the walls of Jericho fell, before the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, before Noah built an ark, before Adam ate the fruit, or before the universe was spoken into being, God made a promise.
“[We have this] hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.” —Titus 1:2
God could have promised anything—or nothing—before creating the world. This means that long before you took your first step or even your first breath, long before God planted you in your mother’s womb or you chose to go your own way, God, in His mercy, promised the “hope of eternal life.”
Think of a time when someone made a promise to you that you held dear, only to discover the other person let you down.
How did you feel?
How did it change you, or what did you learn?
How can you take comfort in knowing that God, who never lies, always keeps His promises?
All the way back in the Garden of Eden – at the beginning of human history, God announced how that promise would be fulfilled: a Savior would be born of human descent. Some of the people whom God would choose to weave into the Savior’s ancestry are the last people we might expect—like Rahab, whose story is at the heart of our study. Her story begins in the Old Testament book of Joshua, but it doesn’t end there. Her name is also found in the New Testament – in fact, not once, but three times!
It can be tempting for us to dive right into the book of Joshua and try to understand Rahab’s story from within the boundaries of the chapters where her story appears. Some may go a bit further and take the time to examine the context of the entire book of Joshua itself, which is certainly a good start. But as careful students of the Bible, we can do better than that. For Rahab’s story, even expanding our study by including an examination of key events in the Genesis and Exodus narratives that precede it is still not enough. The story of Rahab goes even beyond that.
Simply put: Rahab’s story is big.
I have a secret to share with you: Rahab’s story is our story.
It’s a story centered on three key themes, without which there would be no Bible, no gospel, and no Savior. Those themes are faith, grace, and salvation. Here is a woman who witnessed no miracles and knew none of God’s laws. She merely heard of God’s power and, in reverent fear, believed.
This excerpt is from Week 1 of RAHAB: Rediscovering the God Who Saves Me.
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Shadia is a passionate Bible teacher, award-winning author, and speaker who has a heart for seeing lives transformed by the power of God’s Word. She holds a master’s in biblical and theological studies from Western Seminary and is the author of several books and Bible studies, including HAGAR, LEGION, TAMAR, Worthy of Love and RAHAB: Rediscovering the God Who Saves Me!
