Amen. We come back to Hebrews chapter 11 on this Mother's Day and we've been here for quite some time and Hebrews 11 instructs us in the importance of faith to the Christian life. First of all faith by God's grace to enter the Christian life and then faith as we walk this Christian life and so we see the importance of faith throughout the scriptures but Certainly as we come to chapter 11 we see it modeled over and over again by the great men and women of the faith. We see a list of patriarchs and the faith that they lived by. We see Sarah mentioned. We see Moses mentioned. And we see Joshua. We looked at Joshua last week. And so it's been obvious in times of judgment or deliverance, God has been at work to do amazing things and to deliver his people. In fact, as we come to our text today, we realize it's in keeping with what we've been looking at for quite some time. Starting with Moses, although since this is really a continuing story, we can go back to Abraham and how Abraham was told that his descendants would go into a strange land and be strangers there for 400 years. God by His might would bring them out. And then we see exactly how He did that in the days of Moses, that He called Moses and Moses led the people out. And then for 40 years, though Moses was a faithful man, believing the promise of God, doing the Passover as he was called to do, and even most notable at the Red Sea where he told the people of Israel in their moment of being shaken and fearful, he says, no, stand fast and watch what God will do. And then we come to a generation in the wilderness that was not faithful. But now we're to a generation past that in the days of Joshua. We looked at this last Sunday and how they're going to enter the land of promise. The land that God had sworn to them back in the days of Abraham. And they're coming near the land. And we spoke last week about part of the story. We left part of it out for today. But you'll remember they came to the edge of the land of promise. And we mentioned last week they sent spies. Joshua sent two spies. We wondered if that wasn't because in the previous generation Moses had sent twelve spies and only two remained faithful and these spies would represent the faithful spies who had done what they were called to do, that being Caleb and Joshua. And he sends these two in and we Mentioned they spied out the land, but we didn't go into more detail because we were saving that for today. But you'll remember that in the midst of this story of what happens at Jericho, those spies come back and give a report and say they are fearful, they are shaken. God has given the city into our hands. Let us go and take it. And then we read about how that happened as they crossed over and prepared, circumcising that generation and waiting for the Lord. And Joshua meets the captain of the Lord's army who explains to him the way in which this victory will be won. A strange way, isn't it? Most unusual methodology here that God gives that what you should do is you should go around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, seven times around the city. And then when the trumpets blow then what you need to do is everyone lift up their voices and the walls will surely come down and they believed it and they did it and the walls did come down. We come to the story that was in between that story that we said we'd come back to this week and to what happened to the spies because they entered the land and they were in fact told to go and spy out the land and particularly one place, Jericho. We mentioned last week the concern of Jericho. Jericho was a mighty city with mighty walls, double walled in fact. So great that it stood there kind of at the entrance to Canaan by way of the Jordan as a fortress, a way of defending this land from enemy armies. And so it was a great concern to the children of Israel. How will we overcome this great obstacle? Well God gives them the way. But as they send out those two spies, they encounter one of the greatest figures of faith found anywhere in the Bible. And so today we'd like to look at the story of Rahab. Hebrews chapter 11 gives us the one verse that Brother Ben read a moment ago. We'll read it again and please keep it in mind as we work through this. It simply says, By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace. As we think about this text today we want to look at three points. First of all, a providential encounter. Second of all, a surprising encounter. And third, a glorious deliverance. So beginning first with this idea of a providential encounter, what else could you call this? God's providence is written all over this story. As you think about these two spies making their way into Jericho, they just happen to encounter this woman of great faith, truly great faith. We'll come back to that later to speak about how great her faith was. But These events fall into this story we've been talking about, about how they're going to spy out Jericho. And of course, as they came near the land, Joshua tells them in Joshua 2, verse 1, Now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from the Acacia grove to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, especially Jericho. Now immediately we note something of the construction of this wording, don't we? Yeah, you need to go out and survey the entire land as they had in the previous generation, but especially look at Jericho, especially go spout Jericho, look for weaknesses, look for anything that we can use to our advantage. Joshua doesn't yet know God's plan, does he? He doesn't know how this city is going to be taken. And so he's doing everything that he can think to do. Let's go out and get a detailed drawing maybe of the city. Let's figure out how this city might be vulnerable. And he sends these two spies and they go into the land and they go to Jericho and especially spy it out, realizing that this is the great obstacle that stood in the way of the conquest to which they are called. Now, how are they going to enter the city? think about this for a moment. As we hear from Rahab's account, as we walk through it, Rahab knows about what's been going on in the history of Israel. She's heard about what happened a generation earlier in Egypt, how God had delivered His people by His mighty arm over the Egyptians. Now that should get your attention, right? God vanquished the mightiest military on the face of the earth And however you thought that happened, either by hearing about what happened at the Red Sea or you think somehow the people of Israel overpowered them, this would certainly tell you God was with them. In the ancient way of thinking, right, an army wins because its God is more powerful. That's why they would often have battles by champion where you would pick a man and we'd pick a man and they'd do battle and whoever would win, that was a sign of whose God was prevalent or whose God was more powerful. And so again, however they would have understood this history of what happened in Egypt, they would have said, their God showed Himself mighty, mighty to save, mighty to deliver His people. It made the entire city quake. That's what Rahab will say. The entire city is quaking with fear at the knowledge of what God has done. And yet, they'd also heard about what happened as they're approaching the promised land. Because Rahab will say, we've heard of the victories that God gave you over the Amorite kings. Mighty victories, unexpected victories. You're a rabble of a people traveling through the wilderness and yet you defeat these great armies. How is this possible? Except your God is mighty and he is with you. Now for the majority of the Canaanites in Jericho, this is probably just that extent. I don't know if our gods are mighty enough to overcome this God of Israel, but for Rahab it seems to be different, doesn't it? We want to think about this as we go through the story. She seems to have a true faith in the God of Israel. And so as we think about this for a moment, they go and spy out. And if you think about for a moment the danger, if they know the Israelites are coming and they know the success that they've had in battle, they have to fear them, as Rahab says. And so think about this just for a moment. The story as it's given to us explains many of the details to us. It says that as they go into the city they immediately go where? To Rahab's place of lodging. This is more or less an inn slash brothel. That's what it is. The text never hides this from us. You can see from the beginning in Hebrews 11.31 she's referred to as a harlot. James says similarly. The text of Joshua says similarly. This is a term that is difficult to put into English but isn't difficult to explain. It's one who deals in women. That's literally what it means. And the meaning is clear in the ancient world. You could stay at this lodging place and she'd provide women for you if that's what you wanted. And so again, this is where the spies go. We might ask ourselves, why in the world would they do that? Well, think about this for a moment. It says, You see the great danger these two spies always faced was being identified as Israelites. If they know that the Israelites are searching out the country and searching out Jericho, what are they going to do to these two spies if they find them in the land or in Jericho? They're going to arrest them and put them to death. They are not going to allow them to take a report back to Joshua. That might be helpful in the least. detain them and probably execute them. That was the normal way of doing things in that day. And so they enter into the city to scope it out, to look at it, but it seems like they thought the most clever way to hide themselves and to make themselves of no notice was to go to Rahab's place, to stay there. Because immediately you think, why are these guys in town? You know, why are they here? And then you hear where they went and you say, okay, that's what they're here to do. Nothing to do with searching out our city. They're going to stay. They're going to lodge there. Now I want to make this clear. The Bible in no way is implicating them in some kind of sexual sin here. You could just lodge there. The wording at times that the king uses could be taken either way in the Hebrew, when we turn back in a moment to Joshua. But it's clear here that when she takes them up to the roof, they're going to sleep there. That's what it says. They're going to sleep there. So we don't want to implicate them in the sin. This is the cover, if you will, for why they're there and only that. And so these men come and they hide there. But as much as this is a strategic play, it fails. We just read why it did. In fact, let's turn there to the book of Joshua. But he says this, he says, So they went and came to the house, and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. The idea here is what? It didn't work. Whatever the idea of hiding them here, it's failed. The king has found out. Men have come to the king and said, Listen, these Israelites, they've entered into our city, and they're on the lookout, spying out things, and they've hidden themselves at the home of this harlot. Now that seemed to be the plan, but it failed. And the king sends messages, as it were, to Rahab and says this, Now, on the one sense, the one level here, it would seem the plan has failed. The king has called for Rahab to turn these men over, to have them arrested, to have them handed over as it were to him. But we would ask ourselves, since we said that this is a providential encounter, has it failed at all? This doesn't surprise God. These events don't take God by surprise. In the astounding providence of God, this failing situation will lead to one of the most incredible encounters of faith found anywhere in the scriptures. Which brings us to our second point. Because as the king calls in this critical moment for Rahab to turn these men over I want you to think here what it said. So the king of Jericho says, bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country. Now imagine just for a moment if you're these spies. If they know that this has been called for, what hope do they have? Here you are caught in Canaan. Now you're cornered into a particular place of lodging. The king is expecting that they're going to turn you over. And my guess is that you would think that you're about to be turned over. You have to wonder for a moment, what is God's plan here? Has God ordained that we die here in Jericho? Is that God's plan? Or does God have other intentions? And then this surprising event happens. It says, the woman took the two men and hid them. And so she said to them, yes, the men come to me. And I did not know, so this is what she's telling the authorities. I did not know where they are from. And it happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the two men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you may yet overtake them. But she had brought them to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. And the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords. And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate." I want you to think for a moment here. This is an entirely brilliant misdirect, isn't it? This is super effective because what Rahab does is misdirects the guards. You can imagine as they've come to her door, you've got maybe the king himself or at least his emissaries are coming. You've got guards and soldiers that are coming ready to accept these two prisoners to arrest them and probably execute them on the spot. And she gives them this story. Yeah, they were here. Make no mistake about that. They were here, but they left. They knew it was getting dark and the gates were going to shut. And they left. You know, one of the interesting things about living in the ancient Near East was your cities were always in danger. Just read the history of the ancient Near East. It's one nation coming in and conquering another, and then another conquering it. And so you always shut your city gates at night, for sure. Always on the lookout in day, but you realize you can see a little further by day. And so you felt you could get those gates shut if you need to in emergency. But at night, they just shut the gates. And the idea is these two spies heard the gates were shutting, they fled the city and they left. Now, it's a brilliant redirect because it makes perfect sense. Firstly, we would say, why would they expect Rahab to lie to them? She's of the city of Jericho. These are enemies of Jericho. Why would a Canaanite woman lie to them about the presence of these spies? There would be no reason to think that she would lie. So they would take her word at the first level, but then second of all, the story's believable. It would make sense the spies would not want to be trapped in the city overnight. In fact, what's more surprising to us is that they intended to lodge there that night, to sleep there. That's kind of more surprising. You'd think they'd want to get out and survey the city, or get in, survey the city, and get back out. Staying there overnight means they have no means of escape, so it would seem. In fact, I think it's the reason that it makes the point in the text that as the guards leave to pursue the Israelites that they think have fled out the front gate, they shut the gates right after them. They're trapped. As we're reading this narrative for the first time, which would be awesome if we could do, right? We would think in this moment, they are captured. They're trapped. All that can be done now is hide them and hope some way you can get them out of the city the next day. But Rahab has a plan, doesn't she? And then the third thing is the urgency of capturing them before they get too far away leads them to give chase quickly. Not to organize a group, but we need to get going. Let's go. And so they're driven out of the front of the city and away from the city very quickly, which is all going to work according to the plan that she is thinking through, but that is obviously in service to the providence of God here. So what happens? Well, we would want to return ourselves back to that first question. They didn't expect Rahab to assist these two Israelites. And we ought to stop for a second and ask ourselves, isn't that what we would think? Why would Rahab help these men? Why would she for a moment put herself in danger, her household in danger, put everything that she has in danger for these two men who are enemies? of another nation, a nation that is coming to conquer the people of Canaan. Why would she do that? Well, I think, my friends, we can read the answer for ourselves in Joshua chapter 2. If you'll turn to verse 8, you'll see what Rahab says as she explains what she's done. We've already read that she had placed them up on the roof and it says, Now before they lay down, She came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the terror of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came up out of Egypt and what you did to the kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og and how you utterly destroyed them. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord, your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now, therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have. and deliver our lives from death. So the men answered her and said, our lives for yours. If none of you tell this business of ours, and it shall be when the Lord has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window. For her house was on the city wall. She dwelt upon the wall. And she said to them, get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way. So the men said to her, we will be blameless of this oath of yours, which you have made us swear, unless we come to the land. You bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household to your own home. And so it shall be that whenever, or whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be upon our head, if a hand is laid upon him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath, which you made us swear. And then she said, according to your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet cord in the window." Amen. What an amazing text to think about. You know, the reason that she receives them and the reason that she helps them, contrary to the danger it would seem that she would face in doing so, is because she believed there's a greater danger in not helping them. So believing the promise that God would give them the land and the city, she says, if this city is destroyed, how will I live? How will my family live if this city is destroyed? And my friends, I don't think she could have imagined at that point that the way would be for the walls to just collapse. But if she'd known, then she would know how serious it is since she lived in the city wall itself. That she's in grave danger of death and destruction herself. And so she says, my life for yours, if I help you, and she already had helped them by the way, by this point had already shown her willingness to help them. If I help you, will you remember my family, my life and my family's life when God gives you this city? They say yes. They make this pledge. They assume they had the power to do it, but God honors it, doesn't he? Which is what we want to get to here in our final point this morning. because we read about a glorious deliverance. The promise is kept. If we turn just a couple of pages to the 6th chapter of Joshua where we were the other day, we want to see a couple of things in this promise. It says here in verse 22, But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house, And from there, bring the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her." And the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. And so they brought out all of her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel. Now we can read on about the destruction here. It says, Now what an awesome note of deliverance that is. And we might ask how this could come to pass. We just made note that she should particularly be concerned if she knew the means by which God would allow them to take the city. We're gonna march around that city seven times and when the horns are blown and everything is ready, you are to cry out with a loud voice unto the Lord and the city walls will come down. The problem is she's in the wall of the city, isn't she? You might wonder how in the world did God keep his promise when the walls of Jericho came a tumbling down? Well, the answer is that God did keep His promise, as the text tells us. In His might and providence, yes, He brought down the city walls, but in that same might and providence and mercy, it seems He delivered one section of the city walls. If you have an archaeological study Bible, you can read about this. There's an article in it about it. But it says that there's been three different archaeological digs and that they proved not only the biblical narrative that the walls of Jericho collapsed outwardly, outwardly over the shorter city walls, but it says that they found that one section, one short section of the city wall did not collapse. Just one section. And that section was the one that faced north or toward the mountains that are the very things Rahab is pointing out to the spies and saying, go there into the mountains and hide there until the search parties come back and won't harass you or trouble you any longer. And so, my friends, we see here the might of the hand of God and His righteous judgment to bring down the walls of Jericho and deliver this city over, as it were, but we also see His might in the mercy that He shows to Rahab and to her family. We see the mighty hand of God in His righteous judgment and in His mercy. This is the story of Scripture. Right? That the righteous judgment and mercy of God both show His greatness. Both show His holiness. Both show His glory. And the Bible says that over and over again. We shouldn't be afraid to say it ourselves. God is shown in His holiness and His righteousness by His love, His mercy, but also His judgment. And so, my friends, we see that all in this story. And so we see here something very important in the life of Rahab. We see God's great mercy and how His grace abounds to the chief of sinners. That's a theme we see over and over again. Paul says it of himself, right, that God's grace had abounded to him, the chief of sinners. John Bunyan wrote an autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, in which he said that he felt like he was the chief of sinners. My friends, if we've been saved by God's grace, we all ought to feel in some way that way, right? That I'm the chief of sinners. Why would God waste His time saving me? but we thank him that he did, not waste his time, but saved us. We thank him that he did save us, that he showed great mercy. And he shows it in the person of Rahab, who's something of a trophy of grace, isn't she? Because she was a harlot, she was a prostitute, to put it in our common language today. A woman who would not have been reputable even in Jericho, as troubling a city as that was, she would have been a disrespected element even within that city. And yet God saves her and delivers her. And if you look here at that text we just read a moment ago, I left off the final verse there. It says, to read the whole verse again, verse 25, And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had. Now listen to this. So she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. What an amazing thing that is to say. In the days that this was written, you could go meet Rahab, right? You could go talk to Rahab. You could hear other people that had met her. She stood something as a marker of God's grace, a person who exemplified God's grace, very much as Paul says of himself. Paul says, if you want to know about God's grace, look at me, a blasphemer. What might we fill in the blanks if we were to describe ourselves as an example of God's amazing grace? So the text ends with this glorious note. I want to close by thinking about this, that she dwells in Israel to this day as a living testimony of God's grace. And the story reminds us of the amazing grace of God to deliver sinners with amazing grace. But her story continues in Scripture, doesn't it? We don't necessarily have a narrative, but if you think about her being in the book of Joshua, she's found in three different books of the New Testament, isn't she? First of all, in Hebrews 11, verse 31, which we've already looked at today, this short little word to say, hey, listen, amongst all of the examples of faith that we would want to point to, one of them surely is Rahab. One of them is certainly Rahab because Rahab, by faith, was saved while others perished. Why? Because she had faith in the God who delivers. But that's not the only place she's found. There she's found as one example of many that we've been looking at. But if we were to go to the book of James, she's given as one of two examples of faith. When James thinks, what can I do to describe to you the faith that saves, the faith that delivers, and the faith that we ought to live our life by, who will I think of? Well, of course, Father Abraham, right? Of course. Abraham is the father of faith, so to speak. He is the example of what it means to believe the promises of God. That's why in Hebrews we went through his story at length, didn't we? Because he is such a preeminent example of what it means to live by faith. But the other person James thought I ought to give as an example is this woman, Rahab. Because she had faith in God that was so astounding, so surprising, that she risked her life to deliver these spies. And in doing so, became something of a model of what faith looks like. To walk by faith and live by faith. I believe that God has given you this land in promise. But here's the thing, if God gave it to you in promise, He will give it to you in actuality. So it's just a matter of time. When he comes, she says, when he gives you this city, remember me, deliver me. And to show you that I'm certain it's going to happen, I'll put my life and my family's life on the line for it. James says, can you have the faith of this Canaanite prostitute? It's an amazing thing to think about, isn't it? Can you have the faith of this woman And yet the amazing thing about God's grace is it doesn't leave us where we were, right? So when we speak about her being a Canaanite prostitute, that's what she was. But she becomes an example of what it means to be a true person of faith. I was reading in the commentary by Philip Hughes that he said in the writings of the rabbis in the intertestamental period, they would often point back to Rahab as an example for Israel. Think about how amazing that is. Over and over we see this in the scriptures, don't we? Jesus meets a Gentile centurion and says, not in all of Israel have I seen such faith. He meets a woman who is not a member of Israel and says, nowhere in Israel have I seen this kind of faith. And here again, we see a woman who you would not expect to find faith with, and yet is a paramount example of what it is to be a person of faith. I mentioned there were three examples in the New Testament or three references to her. We mentioned the first two, really they're actually the second and third in chronological order of the scriptures in Hebrews and James. But we also want to remember that she's mentioned in Matthew's gospel. Matthew's gospel. Well, what does Matthew say about her? Well, she's listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. In his genealogy. It says this, Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. What does that make her? Like the great-great-grandmother of King David? And by extension, a mother of Jesus, right? I don't know how many generations and great-great-greats we got to go back, but she is a mother of Jesus, so to speak, in the genealogy table. In other words, the idea is she's tied into the story of the history of Israel to such a degree that she is listed in the genealogy table of Jesus Christ himself. Now, if anything, this tells us that God lifted her out of her former life and made her such an example to Israel and to us today that she has the honor of being in the story of the coming Savior himself listed there. My friends, if there's anything we ought to remember about God's grace, He can save even those people we think are unsavable, right? We think about going out and witnessing. We go out and evangelize. We should always do so in hope. It doesn't mean it's easy, and there's many times where we'll be out there, you know, spreading the seed of the gospel, and it will seem to do nothing, or it will seem to take root for an hour, as we're told in the parable, the sower and come to nothing. But there are times where that seed gets deeply rooted and sprouts to an amazing harvest. And one such example is this woman. And we don't even know who she heard all these things about God from. But she heard them somewhere and she believed them. And she put her faith in the Lord God of Israel and was saved, delivered as an example. Not only an example of what it is to be a faithful person, but as something of a type. a type of God's intention to take the gospel out to the nations, right? That the Gentiles, in some way, have a part in the story of the people of God. And so, my friends, as we think about Rahab, she's an incredibly impressive and important figure in the Scriptures. And it seems interesting that if you're going to have a list of the most faithful people, that she's going to find her place here amongst many, but in James, amongst just her and Abraham. So my friends, as we think about this Mother's Day, I can't think of a more appropriate person to talk about than this woman who finds herself in the genealogy table of our Lord Jesus Christ.