Hola Divas! Welcome to week seven of our Bad Girls of the Bible Study by Liz Curtis Higgs. Just in case you are joining us for the first time, please read about the “Dance Fit Divas Bad Girls of the Bible Study“. You should also read past posts on each bad girl: “EVE“, Potiphar’s Wife, Lot’s Wife , Woman at the Well, Delilah, and Sapphira.
This week’s bad girl is another girl with an eyebrow raising past. Instead of being married multiple times and “shacking up” with man number six like the Woman at the Well, this week’s bad girl, (Rahab) was a harlot. Some commentaries say a prostitute others say an innkeeper. Makes me think of Miss Kitty from the western series Gunsmoke. (My Daddy LOVED western movies).
In true western style, Rahab’s story in Joshua chapter 2 opens with two strangers coming into town.
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
Did you see the tumbleweed blow by during the opening credits? (LOL)
Since word travels quickly, the King heard that the spies were at Rahab’s house.
But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. Joshua 2:4
Not only did Rahab hide the spies, she lied and said they had already left the city.
Just before bedtime, Rahab went up on her roof where she had hidden the spies and professed her fear, faith, and reverence for God: “I know that the Lord has given this land to you (Joshua 2:9) ….for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below (Joshua 2:11).
Rahab won the spies’ trust through her faith in God.
Knowing the impending doom for the city of Jericho (but not exactly how it was going to take place), Rahab asked the spies to protect her and her family. They agreed and Rahab instructed them to go and hide in the hills. She lowered a scarlet cord out of her window to allow the spies to escape.
The spies instructed her to leave the scarlet cord tied to her window and to gather all of her family and to stay inside until they entered the city.
For seven days, Rahab and her family heard the Israelites marching around Jericho.
On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! (Joshua 6:15-16)
…..at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. (Joshua 6:20)
But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day. (Joshua 6:25)
Because of her faith, God not only saved Rahab, he gave her a new life. She was able to live among the Israelites and a man named Salmon chose her for his bride.
Ludacris and Jay Z are wrong, a Ho can turn into a Housewife.
.…with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
Our dear bad girl who stepped out in faith and became good, is part of the geneology of Jesus.
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. (Matthew 1:5-6)
WOW! Talk about a story of inspiration!
“It isn’t who you were that matters God. It is who you are in Him. And who you are becoming by the power of his Spirit.” –Liz Curtis Higgs
A must read for all single woman