SERIES: Joshua: Victory Through Faith
God Specializes in Zeros
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: When one of my esteemed colleagues saw my sermon title today, he asked, “Since when are you into autobiographical sermons?” Well, in a sense, a very real sense, today’s message is autobiographical, but then it’s also biographical of every human being who has been sought out and saved by the grace of God.
You see, when we think of zeros, of real losers, we think of people like Rahab the prostitute, people who are the moral scum of the earth. But when we are measured against the righteous standards of God, every one of us comes out a moral and spiritual loser. That’s what Paul meant when he said, “there are none righteous, not even one,” (Romans 3:10) and “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
If I stood next to 7’4″ Rik Smits of the Indiana Pacers on this platform, I would appear to be a pipsqueak. But if you were viewing the two of us out in the parking lot from the vantage of a hot air balloon, the difference tween Smits and me would be virtually imperceptible. Likewise, when we are viewed morally and spiritually from the vantage point of God’s holiness and righteousness, we all come out equal–losers, zeros.
So, there’s a sense in which my sermon could actually be entitled, “God Specializes in People.” But I really did mean something additional when I entitled it, “God Specializes in Zeros.” There are, in fact, certain people who have violated God’s moral laws more consistently than most; there are those who have reached a stage of moral degradation and wickedness that sets them apart from other men and women. And I believe that a case can be made for the fact that God specializes in these kinds of people, not because He desires to honor their behavior, but rather because He desires to turn them into trophies of His grace.
Think through the Bible with me for a moment about some of the great men and women of faith and consider what they were before God took hold of them:
Abraham—a pagan from Chaldea
Jacob—a scheming, conniving liar
Moses—a handicapped murderer
David—a timid shepherd turned adulterer and murderer
Jonah—a selfish coward
Matthew—a despised tax collector
Paul—a short, near-sighted, ugly murderer
Peter—an ignorant, loudmouthed, proud fisherman
Think, too, about some of God’s trophies of grace down through the centuries: Augustine, John Newton, Charles Colson, and the list could go on.
Why is it that God seems to specialize in losers? It’s because He’s in the salvage business. While we tend to write people off quickly when they cross a certain line, God continues to pursue them by His grace and mercy. When we who are self-righteous find someone so sinful that we won’t even stoop to witness to them, God sees an opportunity in that same individual to show forth the glories of His grace.
Perhaps also the reason the family of God includes so many who were once zeros and losers is that it is this type of person who is more willing to acknowledge his or her need of God. The self-righteous often have trouble admitting they’re sick and need help, but the zeros know it intuitively. Therefore, they are more willing to respond positively to God’s offer of salvation.
I’m glad that Joshua 1 is followed by Joshua 2. In chapter one we read of the calling and commissioning of a man, Joshua, who seemed to have it all together. He was a full-fledged son of the Covenant, chosen to be the personal aide to Israel’s greatest prophet, a person who was brought up on the Word of God, who learned quickly from the few mistakes he made, and who was eventually tapped to be the leader of God’s people in conquering the Promised Land.
But Joshua’s story is not everyone’s life story. Not everyone, therefore, is going to find the same amount of encouragement from the fact that God chose Joshua and used him. Some lives are a lot more like Rahab’s, whose story comes up in chapter 2. Rahab was a product of a foreign pagan culture. Her profession was a degrading cancer even among the Canaanites.
Yet God chose both Joshua and Rahab, and what we need to realize is that what each of them became was due exclusively to the working of the grace of God in their lives. So, this is a message of encouragement to those who consider themselves zeros, especially those who have a tendency to look at their past and feel shame and discouragement. It should also be a warning to all of us not to give up on those who appear to us to be losers. If God can make something beautiful out of Rahab’s life, He can do it for anyone.
I want to first share the essential facts of the historical account, and then give you five principles about how God works in the lives of people whom we consider to be losers. So, what actually happened in Joshua 2?
Israel has journeyed north from Sinai, up the east coast of the Dead Sea, and are encamped in the Jordan Valley on the east side of the Jordan River. Behind them are the forbidding mountains of what is today the country of Jordan. Before them, across the river, lies the land of Canaan, which God had first promised to Abraham 700 years earlier. Within sight across the Jordan River are the rugged Judean hills, but thankfully there’s a pass through those mountains to the city of Jerusalem and the rich coastal plains beyond. However, situated near the mouth of that pass and within sight of the Israelites, is a walled city called Jericho. As the capital of a city-state, Jericho is ruled by a king. The inhabitants farm the valley, but at night they retreat within the city walls, which are well-protected against marauding enemies. In order to conquer the land, the city of Jericho must be taken.
So, Joshua sends two spies into the land. Verse one says they went in secretly, which sounds rather obvious. Not too many spies do their work out in the open. But probably the point is that not even the Israelites are aware of the spies’ assignment. Perhaps Joshua didn’t want to risk another fiasco like the well-publicized spy trip he went on nearly 40 years earlier, which led to the deaths of an entire generation of Israelites.
At any rate, the spies head for Jericho and promptly stop at a house of ill repute. This seems rather inappropriate for representatives of the people of God, but I think there is good reason. First, such places were generally near the city gate, eliminating the need for extensive travel within the city. Second, the coming and going of a couple of strange men at such a place would draw little attention from the neighbors; they were used to it. Third, God apparently instructed them to go there, for the lady of the house was already coming under conviction of her spiritual need.
The fact that no hanky-panky went on seems obvious from the fact that Rahab very readily learns their identity and acknowledges that she too has a certain faith in the God of Israel. How could such a topic have come up had they not identified themselves as servants of the Lord? It is my strong opinion that God Himself, who sent them there, told them to identify themselves right up front.
Rahab’s house is on the city wall. For centuries biblical critics claimed this story was historical fiction because there was no evidence that houses were built into city walls in the ancient near east. But the 20th century excavations that have taken place in Jericho have shown that the city was surrounded by double walls, with 12 to 15 feet between them. And they found evidence that simple squatter’s houses were built on top of timbers spread between the two walls. Each would have a window that faces out over the wall.
While the spies are at Rahab’s house, someone becomes suspicious and warns the King, who immediately launches a search for the men. One can readily understand his concern. There within sight across the Jordan River are 2 ½ million people poised to invade his territory. He has perhaps 40,000 people living in and around Jericho. Ordinarily the rain-swollen river would provide some comfort to the King, but not in this case, for word of Israel’s miraculous crossing of the Red Sea some 40 years earlier has certainly preceded them, and the King is not so sure it won’t happen again.
Rahab is an experienced liar, as women of her profession tend to be, so though she has hidden the men on her roof, she convinces the King’s counter-intelligence officers that they have come and gone, and she sends them on a chase in the wrong direction—toward the Jordan River. Her plan is actually to send the two spies that night into the rugged Judean hills to the west of Jericho, where there are innumerable caves. This is the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered; if you’ve ever seen pictures of those caves, you have an idea of how easy it would be to hide there.
While the king’s men are on their way to the Jordan River, the spies are signing an agreement with Rahab. In exchange for the valuable information which she has provided to the effect that the city is paranoid and demoralized, plus her willingness to help them escape, they are willing to guarantee her safety when God’s clock winds down for Jericho. In verse 14 they pledge their lives for hers when (not if) the Lord gives them the land.
This is as good a time as any to observe that there is nothing contradictory between God’s promise to give the Israelites the Promised Land and their efforts to exercise prudence and to gather intelligence. Faith and works are never incompatible—they are almost always complementary.
The method devised for the spies’ escape is a rope hung out of Rahab’s window. But before they leave, they make it clear to her that their promise of future protection for her is contingent upon her tying a scarlet cord in the same window. These men are probably unaware that God Himself is planning to tear down the walls of Jericho, and they are simply trying to be sure they can distinguish Rahab’s home when the time comes for them to return. Not only are they willing to spare Rahab, however, but also any members of her family who gather at her house.
It appears from verse 21 that immediately upon their departure she ties the scarlet cord in her window. The spies hide out in the hills for three days, and then they return to Joshua, undoubtedly swimming the river at night, and report to Joshua all that has happened. Their report mirrors in a significant way the report Joshua himself and his friend Caleb brought after that initial spy trip into the Promised Land 40 years before. “The LORD has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.” (Joshua 2:24)
Having taken an historical overview of the story, it is now our purpose to show how and why God specializes in people like Rahab, and we will do this by picking out five principles which I believe are evident from this account.
God reveals Himself to everyone.
Has this question crossed your mind? “How did Rahab learn about the true God?” Verses 9-11 reveal to us that she knew quite a bit about the Lord—particularly the last part of verse 11: “the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” How did she know this? She hadn’t heard the prophets and she had probably never seen a synagogue.
Well, I believe God revealed Himself to her the same way He does to all pagans and everyone alike. The only difference is that she believed the revelation while her compatriots did not. Listen to what the Scriptures say about the revelation God gives to everyone: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Rom 1:18-23)
The truth is this: God makes Himself known to everyone. He uses nature to make Himself known. He speaks through our consciences. And He uses historical events to reveal Himself (verse 10 says Rahab had heard about the miracle God performed 40 years before in the crossing of the Red Sea and she had heard about Israel’s miraculous defeat of the Amorites). One way or another God always reveals Himself. His footprints are all over this world. But they are not so obvious that people are forced to recognize them. They can choose spiritual blindness instead, viewing the footprints of God as products of chance or historical coincidences. You see, the heathen are not lost because they are ignorant of the truth; they are lost because they have turned their backs on the truth.
Rahab didn’t turn her back on God’s revelation. One writer has observed, “She had a street-smart openness to truth.” Rahab was faithful to whatever little spiritual light she had. While the rest of the citizens of Jericho were paralyzed with fear at the advancing Israelites, Rahab was beginning to think, “Who are these people? Their God must be supremely powerful.” She was open to truth and was looking for something better in life. And when God brought two young men into her life who weren’t interested in using her body, she was compelled to ask, “What kind of a God is it that these men serve? He might be a God who could bring me a new beginning, a new moral framework for life, a new identity.”[i]
Rahab was a seeker of truth, and God always honors that kind of openness. The Scriptures assure us that if we seek with all our hearts, we’ll find the Lord, or more accurately, He’ll find us. In verse 11 she calls Him “the LORD,” Yahweh God—not the Canaanite name for God, but the covenant name that the Hebrew people used for their God. Her powerful confession of God’s absolute sovereignty suggests that she has a growing spiritual sensitivity to the supernatural God who is at work through all these events.
Now a second spiritual principle in this story is that…
God chooses people whom no one else would choose.
There are two points I would like to make here:
He chooses them before they clean up their act. I want you to note that God chose to work through Rahab while she was a Canaanite and while she was a prostitute. She was not yet a convert to Judaism, nor was she a reformed lady of the streets when the two spies came to her house. God didn’t wait until she gave up her immoral profession and got her theology straight before He decided to use her. He chose her as she was.
That, friends, is a very important principle in God’s dealings with people. Many have the notion that they have to clean up their act before they can come to God and receive His grace for salvation. I’ve heard people say, “I’m no good, and God could never accept me because of the things I’ve done.” Rahab tells us that isn’t true. She was a zero on the moral, social, and religious scale—a practicing pagan prostitute, but God set His sights on Rahab and in essence said the same thing He said to Joshua, “I want you!”
The folly of trying to clean up one’s act before coming to God is that without God’s power the act cannot possibly be cleaned up. Oh, a person can dispense with some bad habits and reform an area or two of his life, but the sins of the heart and mind and body can only be conquered through the power of the Holy Spirit. So, if a person refuses God’s overtures because he thinks he’s too wicked, he is in essence turning his back on his only hope of ever becoming righteous.
Another way to state this principle is to say that God saves you in your sins before He saves you from your sins. A second part of this truth that God chooses people whom no one else would choose is that…
He chooses them to eliminate human boasting. This is the clear teaching of 1 Cor. 1:26-31:
“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’”
People like Rahab don’t have anything to boast about; when they are chosen and saved and used by God, all the glory goes to Him.
God promises deliverance to those who respond to His requirements.
In Rahab’s case the spies pledged salvation from the destruction of Jericho to her and her family if she would meet several conditions. First, she must hang a scarlet cord in her window. Second, she and her family must remain in the house. And third, she must keep the spies’ business absolutely secret.
Now think about those requirements for a moment. One can readily understand why the spies set them. After all, they expected to have to battle their way into Jericho. They needed to be able to readily identify Rahab’s house so they could rescue her. They wouldn’t have time in the heat of battle to search the city for her relatives. And obviously they wanted their attack to be a surprise, thus the requirement of secrecy.
But why, from the Lord’s standpoint, were these requirements laid upon Rahab? The Lord had decided to knock the walls down Himself, and He knew where Rahab’s house was. Furthermore, God’s ability to save her and her family is such that He could do so no matter where they might be in the city. And as regards the need for secrecy, God’s plans to destroy Jericho couldn’t be frustrated even if Rahab published those plans in the Jericho Times. Why then did God require these specific responses from her?
Certainly not because He had to, but because that’s how God has generally chosen to work. He never forces Himself into people’s lives and He rarely acts unilaterally in their lives. His normal method is to reach out to us and then demand a response from us. Thankfully, God often continues to reach out to us even when we don’t respond appropriately, but the enjoyment of His blessings are often contingent upon obedient responses.
The one great requirement that God has laid upon all sinners is that they must respond to His gracious act of sending His Son to die for them by trusting Him only for salvation. The Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” (Acts 16:31) Had Rahab refused to put the scarlet cord in the window, I firmly believe she would have physically perished with the other inhabitants of Jericho. If we refuse to lean on Christ and Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins, then we will perish spiritually. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36)
Some people, if they were in Rahab’s place, might have decided that a house in the wall was too vulnerable in view of the coming attack from the Israelites. Therefore, they’d best move into the center of town. And similarly, some people would prefer to find their own way to Heaven. They prefer to devise their own requirements and establish their own specific responses. But Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes unto the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6)
When God lays down requirements and demands specific responses, then we don’t have to understand them or even appreciate them—all we have to do is to obey them.
God keeps His promises.
We must turn over to chapter 6 to see the evidence that God kept the promise made in His behalf by the two spies.
They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, ‘Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.’ So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. 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.” (Josh 6:21-25)
Rahab was promised deliverance and she received deliverance. God’s promises are always sure and certain. And that’s true today, too. Jesus says, “the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” (John 6:37)
God elevates some whom no one else would elevate.
Think about this moral and spiritual zero named Rahab. We may wonder why God ever picked someone like her, but our theology tells us He can and does. We have been taught to accept the fact that there will be some converted prostitutes in heaven, as well as some pimps, some transvestites, some homosexuals, perhaps even some child abusers. But while here on earth they’d better keep their distance from us, and they’d best not ask to serve in our churches. If God wants to save them by the skin of their teeth, that’s His business, but surely He doesn’t expect them to make any significant contribution to His Kingdom! After all, they’re tainted. They’ve made some choices that they have to live with now. Let them be third-class Christians; that way they can serve as a warning to other people about the terrible danger of getting involved in sexual sin.
Now that’s the attitude of a lot of Christians to the loser, especially the immoral loser, who gets saved. But thankfully it’s not God’s attitude. In 1 Cor 6:9-11 we read,
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.9 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
When Paul writes, “That is what some of you were,” he is speaking to the active members of the church of Corinth, perhaps some of the deacons, perhaps some of the Sunday School teachers, maybe even one of the pastors.
Now what does this have to do with Rahab? Well, God didn’t merely save Rahab by the skin of her teeth; he elevated her to a place of significant honor among the people of God. Did you know that Rahab is mentioned in three books of the Bible besides Joshua? I think it would be instructive for us to look at all three of those passages so we can see that God doesn’t merely save; he elevates His chosen ones.
The first one we’ll look at is Hebrews 11, the great Hall of Faith, filled with the names of great men and women in the OT who demonstrated unusual faith in the living God. Do you know something? Joshua’s name doesn’t appear in the Hebrews 11, but Rahab’s does. In Hebrews 11:31 we read, “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” God didn’t just save her. He memorialized her faith so that believers for 33 centuries have known the name of this streetwalker who lived on the wall of the city of Jericho.
The second passage is James 2, where the Apostle James is seeking to counteract a false deduction from Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith. Some people were apparently stressing so much that justification is not by works that they were divorcing works completely from the Christian life. So, James counters that false emphasis by teaching that saving faith is a faith that works. That is, the faith that results in genuine salvation invariably results also in changed lives.
The great paradigm of faith is, of course, Abraham, but James offers us one other example of a faith that demonstrates itself to be real, and that example is Rahab. Imagine it! Out of all the great men and women in the Old Testament and the New, this woman is set forth, along with Abraham, as an example of genuine faith. In James 2:25-26 it says, “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” Rahab’s works didn’t end with helping the spies. The red cord was tied to her window, but the red light in that same window was extinguished. She found a new spiritual, moral, and social framework for living.
The third New Testament passage that mentions Rahab is perhaps the most amazing. Consider Matthew 1:5, where we find the genealogy of Christ. Here we are given the astounding information that this pagan prostitute from Jericho, after being rescued by the Israelites, eventually married a prince of the tribe of Judah whose name was Salmon. She had a son named Boaz, who married Ruth, whose grandson was David. That makes Rahab the great-grandmother of King David, a direct ancestor of Joseph, the husband of Mary, to whom Jesus was born. Can you think of a more unlikely ancestor for the Messiah? What an honor!
So God not only memorialized Rahab’s faith and not only praised her works, He also chose her to be in the royal lineage through which He would bring His Son into the world.
Conclusion: What’s the message for us today? God is in the salvage business, and He is able and willing to turn your life into a memorial for good, no matter what your past or present may be. If you feel keenly your own foolishness and weakness and sinfulness, if you feel despised, if you feel disadvantaged because of racism, sexism, or physical disability, remember Rahab. God knew her and still chose her. She responded in faith and God exalted her. She became like a diamond set against the darkness of her time.
Do you remember that phrase from 1 Cor. 6—“and such were some of you”? This church is full of people whom God has found and saved out of all kinds of destructive lifestyles and patterns. In some cases, He’s still in the process of bringing about the transformation of life. Paul goes on, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” If this hasn’t happened in your life yet, you can be washed clean from the sin that weighs you down, you can experience forgiveness, and you can become someone beautiful in God’s eyes.
DATE: May 12, 1996
Tags:
Revelation
Faith/works
[i] Doug Goins, Peninsula Bible Church, sermon #4457