Rahab [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You'll be obedient even unto death on a cross, out pour out blessing upon blessing upon blessing. And so it was that Jesus hung out his arms, and as he hung there, the blood, the tikvah, the crimson thread ran down from Calvary.

And everyone who trusts in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ is in Christ. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series titled, God Used Who?

And you may just be surprised, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Anytime that you read a story in the Bible and there's a covenant, everything within you ought to start rising up in attention and getting enthralled and excited because you're going to learn something about covenant. And every time you see a covenant in the old, you can know that it's pointing to the day that there would be a better covenant with a better mediator, a new covenant. And so it is that we have a covenant that is being made here.

It's scandalous at several levels. In the first place, it's scandalous because Deuteronomy prohibited the making of covenants with the Canaanites. It says clearly, when you enter the land, the Lord your God brings you.

They take possession of it. Deuteronomy chapter 7, clear away many nations before you, including the Canaanites. And when the Lord gives them over to you and you defeat them, you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. So what scholars would say to this in the first place is that when Rahab makes a profession of faith in Jehovah, the Lord as the true God, she forsakes her Canaanite deities. And so the covenant is now being made with a believer. But what it also points to for me is that in order for God through Joshua to do his work, they needed a covenant partner from inside the enemy camp. And this is what takes place.

Maybe I'll come back to that. It's also a scandalous covenant because Rahab was a harlot. She was disenfranchised. She had no reputation, no merit, no power.

All she had was a sinful and fleshly lifestyle, no wealth and no standing. And they made a covenant with her. She was included into a covenant in the name of Joshua. And Joshua is literally in Hebrew, Yeshua. This is the Jewish name of Jesus. Jesus' name in Hebrew is Yeshua. So whenever you see Joshua in the old, you're seeing the name of Jesus, Yeshua. They made a covenant and they made the covenant in the name of Yeshua with an unlikely woman who had no merit of her own.

She is one who deceives and is commended for it. In short, God didn't just use Rahab despite her sin, but in the midst of the context of her sinful lifestyle. How amazing is our God? Christ came and died for us. Christ came and died for the ungodly while they were still in their sin.

If God had to wait for you or Rahab or anyone to get their act together before he did his saving work, no one would be saved. The nature of a covenant in ancient times was evident both biblically and in other ancient Eastern texts that we have. And usually a covenant was between a greater nation and a lesser nation, a greater power and a lesser. And these covenants, these suzerainty covenants, would often take place where a strong nation might covenant with a lesser nation agreeing to protect the lesser nation if the lesser nation would agree to not align with other small nations in order to try to defeat them. So if you were a strong nation and you made good covenants with surrounding smaller peoples, then they were less likely to try to align themselves and attack you. And so these covenants were made and we have much evidence in the ancient world of how they were made. They always included agreements of what would be done for one another. They also included statements of benefits of the blessings that would come to pass because of the covenant. In this case the agreement was clear is that she agreed that she would show chesed to them, unfailing kindness towards them by not revealing that she had seen them and not turning on them but being loyal to them. And they agreed that when the day came and there was destruction of Jericho that they would that they would show chesed to her and to her family they would be loyal to her.

So the spies would be protected and she would be saved. The blessings are spelled out and covenants would always have some sort of symbol of that covenant. Interestingly in most ancient covenants the practice was to take an animal as a sacrifice and slaughter the animal as a sacrifice. But in a unique and dramatic and even gory way to symbolize that covenant the two parties making the covenant would walk through the slain carcass of the animal and as they stepped through that sort of bloody pathway they would recite their pledge their oath of what they were going to do in the covenant. And they would say essentially in one way or another if I do not keep my word may my life be like this slain animal. They didn't have lawyers and binding written contracts.

Binding written contracts. This was the way you bound yourself in a covenant. You said here are the benefits here are my pledges and you brought an oath upon yourself usually in the name of the deity for your own death if you did not keep the covenant. And so what happens here is there's no time there's no place for the slaying of an animal instead of that blood there's a red cord that is going to be a reminder of this and that they had said to one another surely Rahab said I'll be under that red thread and surely my family would be under that red thread is a sign that I have not betrayed you and I'm under that red cord. And when they saw that red cord the tikva the sign of hope they would see the symbol of the covenant that they made and they would be reminded and so what they say to one another is surely surely we will be bound to this covenant and let it be they said even unto our own death if we do not so keep this word. Verse 14 our life for yours even to death even to death. And so the covenant is made it is a covenant that is quite reminiscent of at least two other interesting scenes in the Old Testament and the first of which that comes to mind is the Passover itself. There were 10 plagues that God brought against Egypt in order to cause Pharaoh to let the Egyptian slave people go and the 10th of the plagues the destroyer would come through the land and every firstborn of the Egyptian even unto Pharaoh himself would be destroyed. But the Lord gave a revelation to the Hebrew fathers that if they would take an innocent lamb slaughter it at twilight and paint over their doorposts into the sides of their door frames some of the blood of the lamb that wherever there was blood over the door the destroyer would pass over and those inside would be saved. Wherever there was the sign wherever there was the sign of the blood they would be saved and what is so powerful about the story is that we are not told about the merits of those Hebrew people we don't know in some of those homes where there was the sign of the blood there could have been great sin that day there could have been a father who had blasphemed God or a teenager who had dishonored his parents or there could have been an adulterous woman we don't know what was under the blood because there was not an analysis of the merit of the people inside of the home instead what was observed was the blood of the unblemished lamb everything that makes the gospel good news has to do with this picture is that when you accept Christ you're his and you're under the blood you're under the tikva you're under the red cord the crimson thread of the blood of the Lord Jesus and when you're under the blood all the promises of God are yes and amen and Christ to you God does not hold your sin against you but instead transfers to you the very righteousness of Christ and so the power of the Christian life the victory of the Christian life and the joy of the Christian life is that we hang on to the hope of the gospel of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ we have Jesus oh Lord you are my tikva you're my salvation that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series God's love you've heard about it with your ears you've believed it in your mind now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book lover of my soul the bible is a love story from beginning to end you are the spiritual bride of Christ the perfect bridegroom the bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you to win you and to walk with you hand in hand for any man who has fallen in love with a woman you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like for any woman who has searched for true love which you long for can only be found fully in God Gary Chapman renowned author of the five love languages says the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life and lover of my soul ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart accept Christ's proposal enjoy his embrace revel in his love after all it's a match made in heaven it's lover of my soul by Alan Wright the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries we're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright the other image that comes to mind this red thread is a story we won't take time to look there but in Genesis chapter 38 it is very another scandalous story in which Tamar traps her father-in-law and he thinks she's a cultic prostitute sleeps with her and she has these twin boys and it's an interesting a curious story that as the birth is taking place that the first little boy has coming out sort of breach in his his arm or something comes out and the midwife takes a red thread and wraps it around his wrist and says here this will remind us this was the one who came out first and the reason it was important is because the firstborn son had a special place of privilege in that society he would be destined to a double portion of inheritance a special blessing over his life and all of culture to adore him he's the firstborn but interestingly it was like the baby kind of withdrew back in and then the other baby got born first and so Perez was born first but Zara was the one who had the red thread around his wrist that is a very curious story but it is to say that wherever there was the red thread around the wrist you should treat that one like a firstborn son so when that red cord that tikvah was hung outside of Rahab's window it echoes the Passover itself where the blood of the lamb has been shed and whoever's under the blood is safe and whoever's not under that blood is not safe and it is an indication that red thread wherever you see that red thread treat them like a firstborn son an heir wow you're under the blood and if you've never accepted Jesus I can't tell you anything more important to do in your life than to accept the new covenant in Jesus Christ get yourself into the covenant of Jesus with God so she's in covenant so Joshua announces the plan the people march around the city they shout and as he is announcing the plan at verse 17 of chapter 6 he says destroy everyone except Rahab she's on his mind the one woman who is most sinful in that city is on general Joshua's mind and can you imagine the chaos I've been to Jericho I've seen some of the archaeological dig there the walls in Jericho were massive famously massive when they came down think of a bomb going off bomb going off dust filling up every alleyway rubble chaos shrieks of terror soldiers with their swords drawn rushing upon the city acrid smoke begins to fill the air and in the midst of that chaos Joshua said priority number one go find Rahab and her people and bring them out safely do you see the power of a covenant she was by every measure the weakest person in that city she had no power she had no place she had no reputation she had no wealth she had no strength she had no particular education or insight all she had was a tikvah all she had was a red cord all she had was a covenant that she'd made with the strong Joshua and that's all she needed because though she might have been the weakest because she was in covenant she was the strongest person in that city she's the most victorious person the only victorious person in the entire city we had a great time this weekend to be able to spend some time with my little nephew Wesley he's 10 months old and so 10 months old and so just think of he's just so cute but it's good to have a baby in the house but his mother Courtney drops him off he's 10 months old not yet talking not yet walking 10 month old doesn't know much you wonder what goes to a 10-month-old's mind is my mom coming back we had fun I took him for a stroll it was a beautiful day and Ann rocked a baby in the same chair that she rocked our babies and it's fun having him but I'm gonna tell you the truth that though Wesley has no might has no might cannot talk and cannot walk in a very real sense there's nobody on the planet that can move his mother like him why is she going to come back for him because she is his mother mother you could offer her any amount of money in the world to not come back for her boy and she would turn you down you could put every kind of obstacle in her way and she'd leap over it wouldn't she why because when you have a baby you're in a covenant chesed chesed that moves a mother how much more so the steadfast love of the lord endures forevermore and when you are in covenant with god through jesus christ the truth of the matter is that it is god's faithfulness towards you that makes you utterly powerful in this world in our weakness his strength is perfected in his grace we rest he is the king of kings he is the lord of lords he is yahshua he has all power he has all might and he is moving on your behalf because of a covenant but this covenant was not made between you and god it was made between a father and a son for there was no one on the face of the earth who could be obedient everyone sinned and all had fallen short of the glory of god and so god sent another human being a god man into the world to stand as a human being on behalf of humanity to make a covenant with god so that god could say if you'll be obedient even under death on a cross i'll pour out blessing upon blessing upon blessing and so it was that jesus hung out his arms and as he hung there the blood the tikva the crimson thread ran down from calvary and everyone who trusts in the saving work of the lord jesus christ is in christ and it's in christ that therefore you're in covenant with god and it is an irrevocable covenant it is a covenant that now has god the creator of the ends of the earth moving on your behalf and the chaos and the rubble and the dust and the smoke and every uncertainty of your life when you go what do i have you've got the crimson cord you've got the red scarlet thread of the blood of the lord jesus over your life and that changes everything and that is brothers and sisters the gospel alan wright good news in today's teaching the conclusion of the message on rehab in the series god used who stick with us alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and today's final word god's love you've heard about it with your ears you've believed it in your mind now experience it in your heart with alan wright's beloved book lover of my soul the bible is a love story from beginning to end you are the spiritual bride of christ the perfect bridegroom the bible tells about a god who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you to win you and to walk with you hand in hand for any man who has fallen in love with a woman you've tasted the sweetness of what god's love for you is like for any woman who has searched for true love what you long for can only be found fully in god gary chatman renowned author of the five love languages says the incredible reality that god pursues us and love comes to life and lover of my soul ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart accept christ's proposal enjoy his embrace revel in his love after all it's a match made in heaven it's lover of my soul by alan wright the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries we're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org so alan uh i know i've thought of it before and maybe it's a question that someone listening right now is asking what do i have to offer to offer god to offer the kingdom what services can i do what can i bring and this is a wonderful example of come as you are if god would have celebrated a woman of scandal like rehab just because a covenant that was made with her as she helped the people of god how much more so is god faithful to his promises to you you might have a lot of uncertainty in your life right now it might be a lot of you might feel like you're in the midst of jericho and the walls of all tumbled and everything you counted on you have no idea how through all this dust you're gonna find hope here's a great comfort god has not forgotten you he is here and his hand reaches out to you even even now here take hope in the end he is our tikva he's our red thread he is our hope jesus christ today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries