An Adoptive Apron String to Jesus



We have no idea what ethnic roots the
Bible's Rahab (Raah-hob) carried.
We only know she was a Caananite: living in a
multicultural part of the ancient Middle East.
Her Caanan was similar to Egypt in being a cultural
crossroads, but was geographically close to today's
Turkey, which was the Asia Minor of ancient times.
We also know her to have been redeemed by
believing God, and redeemed by the fact that God
weaved her ancient faithfulness into the
unfolding of Jesus' adoptive birth.

(Illustration a product at Etsy)



It's Advent, the season when we anticipate Christmas, the celebration of Jesus' birth. It's an odd time for a sermon that reminds us of some of ancient Israel's gruesome history; but some pastors - past and present - have turned to the story of Rahab, the Caananite, to remind us that the family history leading up to Jesus' earthly adoption was not an easy history.

Rahab, in ancient Caanan, was a harlot or prostitute. She lived in a city, Jericho, where there were godless child sacrifices and even orgies. But she apparently was treated respectfully, for whatever that was worth; because even travelers not interested in sexual relations could find room at her own dwelling place or business. And when she said to men on the hunt, who were sent by Jericho's king, that Hebrew spies had come and gone from her place of business, the king's men and the king believed her.

Apparently, in wicked Caanan, a prostitute was respected, maybe in the manner of an ancient geisha.

But God, no respector of persons, didn't look on Rahab with worldly respect. Instead, He sought her heart. Although God could have made the way for his Hebrew spies to make their way through Jericho some other way than through a brothel, or some other way than through Rahab's untruths, God meant to save Rehab and her family not only from perishing through the doom that would befall Jericho, but also meant to save them from an eternity apart from believing on Jesus, who was to come.

It's an odd sermon for Advent, but then, maybe not. Rehab believed.

And after she and her family spent time outside of the camp of Israel, time to be cleansed, they were able to not only enter into Israel's gates but to become part of the struggle to usher Jesus into our living today, not through flesh but belief in Spirit.


 

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