Faith From the Unlikely

Faith is willingness to follow God even when it seems ridiculous. We've walked around this wall twelve times and not one loose pebble, but they, to a man and a woman, they said, but we shall walk around this city.

We will raise our voices in a shout of triumph. The priest blew that long note on his trumpet and then all the people began to shout, and I think, I think even to their own amazement, the walls came tumbling down. There's much about the story of Jericho that's amazing.

It's a clear demonstration of faith by the people of God. But in the story, there's an important character who's easy to overlook. A woman named Rahab. From a human standpoint, Rahab's name doesn't really belong in Hebrews 11. She wasn't Jewish, her people were wicked and under condemnation, and she was a prostitute by profession. Despite all that, she ended up in this hero's hall of faith. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart.

Stephen Davey has a lesson for you entitled Faith from the Unlikely, and he'll remind you that your past does not dictate your future. If you have your Bibles open to Hebrews chapter 11, I want to cover the next two entries here regarding the Israelites and Rahab. Now in verse 29, you'll notice that we're going to shift from Moses to the plural pronoun, which includes the entire people of Israel. Notice, by faith they, and if you haven't circled the word they, I recommend you circle that in your text, by faith they, not just Moses, but all of them, passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land, and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. All that's said is that one verse, and you know what? Eighty verses from the book of Exodus are condensed into that one verse. And we don't even have time, we can't dare turn back to the book of Exodus, which I did in my study, so let me just sort of review it for you.

It's a familiar story. One thing you need to know, which makes Hebrews 11 29 really stand out, is that the Israelites leave Egypt and everything is going smashingly, wonderfully, until they get word that Pharaoh's army is coming after them. Somewhere along the way, Pharaoh said, what in the world was I thinking? I just let our entire host of unpaid laborers go free. We got to go get them back. Now they're after them. The Israelites are pinned down, there are mountains on one side, a desert plain on another, the Red Sea in front of them, and the soldiers behind them.

They're virtually stuck. And they say this to Moses, and I'll quote from the account in Exodus. They said this to Moses, were there not enough graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? And there's faith for you, isn't it? Didn't we tell you to leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.

That does not sound like faith. What is Hebrews doing, including them? Well, we'll get to that in a moment, but you need to understand, of course, the liberals and the critics are going to be quick to point out that the Red Sea can be translated Sea of Reeds. So they conclude this is not what we think about when we think of the historic location of the Red Sea.

This is, you know, this is just a shallow, knee-deep, marshy, you know, overgrown creek. It wasn't much of a sea at all. It would have been nothing miraculous for them to wade across, okay? But isn't it a little embarrassing to them that the Egyptian army will drown in knee-deep water? Didn't they learn to swim in the shallow end?

No, the Red Sea had an average of about 1,800 feet deep. The sea is deep enough to cause the children of Israel to assume they are hopelessly pinned down and there is absolutely no way out. And their first response is fear, not faith. I love Moses's command of the people of fear, which transforms them into a people of faith. He said this, again, Exodus chapter 14, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today.

He's going to do something for you. You will never see the Egyptians again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.

By the way, in Hebrews 11, you have two events and the same command is repeated in both event. Be quiet. When you circle Jericho, be quiet. When the Egyptians come upon you, be silent. Just be quiet and watch. And I love that because God asks them to do something, but he asks them to do the only thing they can do.

Be quiet and watch. Here's a key principle of faith if you're taking notes. Faith is willingness to obey God even when it seems hopeless.

Even when it seems hopeless. We're told again in the fuller account that God caused an east wind to sweep in. He divided the waters in two.

He didn't divide the waters with the wind. The wind dried out that riverbed so that the next morning or a few hours later, nearly three million Israelites are going to be able to risk their lives and by faith walk in between two walls of water. Now at this point, you may have an image in your mind of Moses.

He's got long gray hair and a beard and he looks like Charlton Heston. And you got this narrow passageway where Israelites are walking two by two, you know, shoulder to shoulder and not quite. What would it have taken to get millions of people across a dry riverbed quickly enough so that in the morning watch they're already through it and then the Egyptians try it. Arthur Pink in his commentary on this passage said there are three degrees of faith. The first is a faith that receives, you know, kind of like empty beggars. That's how we got saved.

We could do anything but receive it. The second is a faith that reckons, that is it counts on God to fulfill his promises even though we don't have to do anything about it. And the third is a faith that risks. This is a faith that believes the promise of God and yet has to do something so that that faith can be demonstrated through their risk, their daring. This is the faith of Daniel as he runs to meet Goliath. This is the daring of Elijah who summons all of the false prophets to Mount Carmel. This is the daring of the apostles who defied the authority and said we will not stop preaching the gospel. Now this is the daring of the Israelites. They can't stay on the other side go well okay Lord we believe the promise.

No, they've got to walk down that dry riverbank wall of water divided perhaps one of them just mounting higher and higher cutting off the light of the Sun. You walk through it and you risk everything. You can't just believe. You just can't receive.

You've got to do. And they did. This is one of the greatest corporate acts of faith in the lives of people who had consistently failed. Of course Hebrews 11 informs us here the Egyptians came after them and tried it. God caused that dry riverbed to immediately begin to draw moisture. Their wheels bogged down. Then those two walls of water came rushing toward them with such unbelievable fury that every one of them to a man died and historians record that it will be nearly 35 years before Egyptians will even venture near the Red Sea again.

God used unlikely people who had really done nothing but fail through whom he demonstrated his promise. Now verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they'd been encircled for seven days. Again, it's possible to look at this, go, OK, I know all about that story. I've read this a few times.

Well, slow down. You need to understand, first of all, there's a 40 year gap between verse 29 and verse 30. Maybe it'll help to write that in the margin of your Bible.

40 year gap at least. The Israelites who crossed the Red Sea are not the same Israelites who crossed the Jordan who are now facing the city of Jericho. This particular story takes place a generation later in the book of Joshua. This is a different group of Israelites. This time, the writer of Hebrews is going to condense 83 verses into these two verses.

If you went back to the Journal of Joshua this time, you'd discover the false story. The Israelites have just crossed the Jordan River. Again, God miraculously divides the water.

People walk across. He doesn't really mention that. But this time, they're trusting God to lead them on their way as they move into the land that's been promised to Abraham. And their first stop is this walled fortress of Jericho.

And we learned as children, many of us, that classic old spiritual in Sunday school, right? Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho. Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho. Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho.

And what? The walls came tumbling down. Jericho barred the entrance into Canaan. It's a massive fortress standing in their way. The city was armed to the teeth. It was well equipped.

It was heavily armed. And here stand the Israelites, and most of them, all they've done all their lives is farm. Now, remember, this would have been the city where the spies, 40 years earlier, had come back to report Deuteronomy chapter 1. And the report included these words, and they're talking about Jericho.

Think about it in that context now. The report said, the spies said, the people are bigger and taller than we are, and their city walls reach up to heaven. And that report had thrown Israel into such a panic that they said, we can't go any further. And they ended up wandering for 40 years in the wilderness. Two of those spies had said, no, no, no, we can do it.

We can do it. Well, we'll trust the promise of God. Those two young spies are now 40 years older. One of them is the commander named Joshua. I love the fact that Joshua and Caleb are back. They're back. They're back now, and they're looking at that same fortress.

They're 40 years older. They've been 40 years to wait, and to think, and to prepare. And now the strategy is given to Joshua, and he was probably surprised. Here's the strategy.

I'll review it for you. If you're younger in the faith, you may not know this, soldiers, priests, and people, it's implied that the people walk around the city of Jericho once a day for six days. They're to walk in such a way that priests at the front of the line are carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and seven priests are blowing on trumpets made of ram's horns, and then the people behind. On the seventh day, they're to walk around the city seven times, and then one of the priests is going to give a long blast on his trumpet, and all of the people are going to look at that city and shout, and the walls are going to fall down. That's great. Is there a plan B by any chance?

No, that's it. I've tried to imagine that scene from the other side. Can you imagine soldiers up on the walls looking down at this procession? Can you imagine, you know, one of them yelling down to the Israelites, you know, what in the world are you doing? What are you doing down there? Imagine that conversation.

It didn't happen because they're not talking, but suppose it did. Well, we're conquering your city. Oh, how's that? Well, we're going to walk around your city once a day for six days. Oh, wow. What then?

Well, then we're going to walk around it seven times on the seventh day. Oh, you're scaring me. Stop. And what then?

Well, and then a priest is going to blow on his trumpet. We're going to shout at your walls, and they're going to fall down. We can't take it.

Stop. We know the conversation didn't happen, couldn't happen, because part of God's command was that all the people remain absolutely silent during their march around the city. It was as much a demonstration of them to remain silent as it was for them to shout. Don't forget that.

Both were the will of God. Which is, by the way, such wisdom from the Lord, because can you imagine the potential grumbling in the ranks, you know, day four? Not one stone of this wall has budged. I mean, we ought to be building ladders.

You know, we ought to dig some tunnels, you know, build some humongous slingshot or something that, you know, we can light. One author said it this way. How much mischief is created by people perpetually talking about the difficulties of the task confronting us? Listen, he writes, all real Christian service is beset with difficulties.

Satan will see to that. They could travel around that city wall and after seven days be so upset and so infuriated and so divided and so factioned off that no one would have had a voice to yell on the seventh day. God in his wisdom knew human nature well enough that even though they were trusting him, the best thing they could do was remain quiet, especially in light of this strange strategy. Hudson Taylor, the missionary pioneer to China, said there are three stages to God's will.

Impossible, difficult, done. There will always be difficulties and always be challenges. There will be disappointments. Frankly, as we attempt to demonstrate through us as a collected body, faith, we have to understand that we are fallen sinners, joining hands with fallen sinners to reach fallen sinners with a gospel. Sometimes it's helpful to just be quiet and work. There's no such thing as an opportunity for God without opposition from the enemy.

In fact, it's been said that the greater the opportunity, the greater the opposition. I just finished this past week the biography of Adoniram Judson and in one of the chapters he's baptized one of the petty chiefs in Burma. It was the highest official that he had ever baptized. He had come to faith in Christ here in Burma and a huge crowd had showed up and they lined the river and as soon as that chief came up out of the water, the crowd began to laugh. What a fool that chief is.

What a crazy ordinance. I mean here in our assembly when people are baptized we clap. Imagine being baptized knowing when you come up out of the water you're gonna be surrounded by people who mock you.

Can you imagine these armies up on that wall? I mean they spent seven days laughing and jeering and mocking and hurling blasphemy upon blasphemy down upon the heads of these farmers. What a test of faith.

Here's a key principle. Not only is faith willingness to obey God even when it seems hopeless, secondly, faith is willingness to follow God even when it seems ridiculous. I mean we walked around this wall, this city wall, 12 times and not one loose pebble, not one little rumble, not one change, jeering blasphemy hurled down on us for six days.

I mean what kind of military strategy is this in the first place? How could we have come so far for nothing but by faith, obedience and following God even when it seemed ridiculous. They to a man or a woman they said but we shall walk around this city for the 13th time. We will do it. We will raise our voices in a shout of triumph. We're gonna aim it at this fortress of unbelief.

We will do it. And they did it. The priest blew that long note on his trumpet and then all the people began to shout and I think even to their own amazement the walls came tumbling down.

I don't think any of them looked at each other and said yeah we knew that happened. I think it took their breath away. They marched into the city and took that city, stunned city as it was, captive, judging it as the instrument of God as he'd promised now and they'd had 40 years to repent and had refused.

Faith keeps walking. Impossible, difficult, done. Start all over again. Impossible, difficult, done. Start all over again.

Impossible, difficult, done. The story gets even better, even richer. I want you to notice one personal vignette of faith tucked inside this amazing national act of faith. Look at verse 31. We're introduced to another unlikely person of faith. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

Here's a sentence you would never imagine reading in the Bible. By faith Rahab the harlot. Talk about famous for all the wrong reasons.

You talk about connections. She had all the wrong ones. Talk about the last person you'd ever think would be converted to faith in the living God, but guess what? She'd heard the stories. Joshua's journal again tells us that she told the spies who'd come, I've heard all about your God. In fact I even heard the story growing up about you crossing, note this, the Red Sea.

Not the Jordan which they just crossed. 40 years earlier I heard, we all heard, about how God divided the water and you all walked across the dry riverbed as God divided the Red Sea. And she said, and our hearts melted within us.

Don't miss that. 40 years ago when the spies returned and said, oh there are giants in the land and cities with walls reaching up to heaven, a reference to Jericho, we'll never be able to do it. And everybody panics. Now we learn that 40 years earlier their hearts had all melted. They were terrified. Isn't it tragic to think that was the real story? All along, ready to be taken if not converted?

Terrified of the miraculous power of God? They'd heard of it. Now you have this harlot with more faith than the entire generation of Israelites. Because she said, when I heard that you walked through the Red Sea, I knew, and I'm quoting Joshua 2, I knew that the Lord had given you the land and that your God was the God of heaven and earth.

The Israelites had marched through the Red Sea and they came to the conclusion we can't do it. This prostitute heard the story and she said, oh after I heard that happened I knew you were following the true and living God. She said, I did these spies that had come in this time to hide away. She said, I knew he was the real God and here's what I love. She said to them effectively, and can I come with you?

Do you think your God would accept somebody like me? And they said absolutely. You tie that red rope on your window, Sil, and we'll see it. Recent research indicates that that red rope was actually used by prostitutes to indicate business was open.

One author said she lived in the red rope district. You put it out there, you act as normal as you possibly can, even though business had closed down she'd moved her family into wait, and when they came she was ready. She is going to stake her entire future on God redeeming her a harlot and the grace of God to accept her.

Faith is our willingness to forget the failure of our past and risk everything about our future as we obey God. Rahab is rescued after the walls fall down. She and her family. It isn't long before a godly Israelite named Salmon meets her, and he is so moved by where she'd been and how she'd believed and what she risked and what she abandoned and her faith. He says, this is the woman I've been waiting for all of my life, and he proposes and she accepts. And get this, he's one of the princes of Judah. He's in the royal line of the Messiah. And this mixed couple, Jew and Gentile, have a little boy and they name him Boaz. And Boaz grows up hearing the testimony from his mom's own lips about her past and her faith and her risk, and it didn't ruin his life either. In fact, he grew up watching his faithful Jewish father and his faithful Gentile mother and his little heart is prepared, isn't it, to do the same? Because he's going to grow up and marry a Gentile woman who had a past of idolatry named Ruth.

A couple generations later, their great-great grandson will be named David, as in King David. Look at Rahab's past. Look at her future. We all have pasts. Imagine our not-so-distant future. For Jesus Christ, who was born of mixed blood, Jew and Gentile has come to call a bride, went a bride of mixed blood of every tribe and tongue and nation.

Just imagine your future. Have you ever felt that you've made too many mistakes to ever be used by God? No matter where we've been or what we've done, God can redeem us and use us and give us a glorious future. I hope today's time in God's Word has been a tremendous encouragement to you.

Thanks for tuning in to Wisdom for the Heart. Our Bible teacher, Steven Davey, has two more lessons to go in this series through Hebrews 11. We'll bring you those next week. I want to remind you once again that this series is the basis of Steven's latest hardback book entitled Hebrews 11. This book would make a great addition to your library of biblical resources, and I encourage you to call us to learn how you can get a copy.

Our number is 866-48-BIBLE. It's also available in the store on our website, which you'll find at wisdomonline.org. The July issue of Heart to Heart magazine will be arriving in mailboxes very soon. We've been hearing from readers telling us how much they've enjoyed it and especially the daily devotionals. Those devotionals are written by a member of the Wisdom team and are a great way to keep you in God's Word daily. Be sure and ask about how you can get Heart to Heart magazine when you call. Have a great weekend and join us Monday for more Wisdom for the Heart. you