2024_03_8 Insight Post- Karenna Rowenhorst
This week’s reading- Joshua 2, Joshua 6:17-25, Matthew 1:5, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25
What a life Rahab lived: filled with ups and downs, turmoil and escape, spies and deception, and ultimately risking her life to keep her family safe. As someone who was in the innkeeping business as well as prostitution, it seems that this Canaanite woman was a risk taker: entrepreneurial and self-starting. I wonder how she ended up as a “head of household” which, for women at the time, did not leave many options, and prostitution was one of them. I wonder how she decided to take on the role of safeguarding her family. There is a lot we don’t know about how Rahab got to this place in her life.
But we do know that Rahab was the kind of woman who was willing to make a choice to protect the Israelite spies because she had heard of the power of their God. Rahab decided He was the supreme God of the universe, unlike the Canaanite gods, and when she realized that truth, she entrusted her life and her entire family’s life to Him.
While reading this week, I started thinking about the red cord Rahab used – both to help the Israelite spies escape, but also to mark her home as “safe” when the Israelite army arrived to conquer Jericho (this was back in the day before they could mark themselves safe on their phones, so I guess a red cord did the trick).
When the spies left, they told her the agreement: the red cord was to be hanging from the window and all her family must be inside the house when they returned with the army of Israel. This signal to keep the family safe reminded me of another time when people had to stay inside a home marked with a special sign. But this time it was the Israelites, and God was judging the Egyptians for keeping the Israelites as slaves. The sign on their home was the red blood of a sacrificed lamb, and all the Israelite firstborn children were kept safe when the angel of death swept over Egypt, killing the firstborn of any family who did not have their home marked with this sign.
I think there is a connection between these stories – the choice of Rahab to follow God and help the Israelites conquer Jericho and the Israelite families choosing to follow God by marking their doorposts to keep their family safe from the judgment on Egypt.
Both stories highlight how God saves us when we identify with Him when we are not afraid to commit to Him wholeheartedly. In both cases, there is no “halfway.” You can’t paint just part of the sign on your doorpost or only lower the red cord a little way out the window and be safe. When we come to God, admit our failings, and acknowledge that the only way through is with Him, we have to be willing to be all in. Not partly or a little bit, or the part that feels comfortable, but all of us – every part of our life.
Do you see yourself as part of God’s family? Is there a sign on your doorpost or a rope hanging from your window? How are you doing with your life priorities: how you spend your time, your money, your resources? Are they in alignment with God’s priorities? Would your neighbors know you are a follower of Jesus? Your co-workers? Your classmates?
We can be “all in” because God is all in – sending His only Son as the sacrificial lamb on our behalf – to reconcile us to Him. If you are not yet a follower of Jesus, know that He welcomes us just as we are, but He wants all of us. Not just a part of our hearts, but the whole thing. The entire length of rope. When we accept Him, holding nothing back, He walks alongside us to transform us into the men and women He created us to be.
Karenna Rowenhorst
Senior Director of Education