Courage Like Rahab: Standing Strong

I am so excited to share with you Courage Like Rahab: Standing Strong, by a fellow blogger and new found friend! Mira tells the amazing story of Rahab and the spies. Mira tells us "In the world we live in today, it’s hard to have the courage to stand firm for what we believe. But God actually calls us to, just like he called Rahab to do thousands of years ago." I hope you enjoy with wonderful article about faith and courage. If you want to hear more from Mira, you can subscribe to her blog, The Vintage Heart, here. Don't forget to read my post posted on The Vintage Heart here. Hope you enjoy Mira's amazing article.

Hello!! As you’ve already gathered, Shadow has very graciously agreed to do a post swap with me this week, and I’m absolutely thrilled about it. I stumbled across Shadow’s blog from a mutual friend, and soon after she found mine. It’s been so wonderful getting to know her and be encouraged by a fellow writer. (Thank you for agreeing to post swap with me, Shadow!) 

So, who am I? 

My name is Mira, and I am a young blogger/writer/homeschooled teen from Midwest America. I’ve been running my blog since the spring (which you can check out here! Home | Vintage Heart).  I could copy over my Pinterest bio, which says “Follower of Jesus. Writer. Blogger. Dog-lover. Tea-drinker. Hymn-singer.”, but I can’t say I find that all that descriptive, so here are a couple other facts about me: 

• I hail from a large family 

• If I was a season, I would be autumn 

• If I could live in any book, I would choose Anne of Ingleside 

• Every time there’s a thunderstorm, I pull out my laptop and sit down to write, watching the storm like it’s a movie 

• Writing is my oxygen. I’m working on a fantasy duology, while plotting several other novels I hope to get published one day. 

 I think that’s all the bases about me I wanted to cover. All in all, I’m your average girl who just happens to love the classics and indie music. ;) 

With the recent events of the world, things are looking pretty scary. It seems that every time we check the news, there’s a new major historical event we’ve just lived through. And that’s exhausting.

 It's okay to be scared. One hundred percent. But it's not okay to let your fear take control.

Fear is one of the most dangerous emotions because it's absolutely crippling. If we listen to our minds and allow ourselves to believe the (oftentimes) harmful thoughts we create, we can become paralyzed, refusing to move at all.

It's at this point when fear becomes sinful. This kind of fear shuts its eyes to the logical solutions all around us and balks at moving at all. It says I know better than You.

(As a sidetrack, how ridiculous it is, that we would look at the God who set the galaxies in motion and think that we could do a better job than He could!)

Instinctively, we know it's wrong, and we know we need to change our response. But fear is a tricky thing. Once you've started digging your track, it's hard to dig yourself out without making it deeper.

That's why God's grace is on full display with us when we cripple ourselves like scared sheep. In His kindness, He teaches us exactly what our response to those scary situations should be, instead of the terror we work ourselves up into.

In Shadow’s lovely post on Vintage Heart, she touches a little bit on the story of Rahab, and how beautiful the story of God’s faithfulness really is. I thought I would take this story and dive a little deeper into it. 

Rahab

At the time of the Israelite's conquest of the promised land, a young woman named Rahab was living in the city of Jericho.

Rahab was not a princess, or even a respectable lady. She was a prostitute with a sordid past, someone looked down on in her society, without any true place in the city.

Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, sent two spies to scout out Jericho. They were led to Rahab, who let them stay in her house.

However, things rarely go as planned. The bible doesn't tell us exactly how the king of Jericho knew where the spies were, and it doesn't tell us exactly why Rahab hid the spies. But the king of Jericho heard about the spies and sent word to Rahab, saying "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they came to investigate the entire land." (Joshua 2:3)

I want to pause here and think about this for a moment. These men were not random strangers who had stopped by for a cup of coffee and to rub elbows with the Canaanites. They were Israelites.

By this time, news of the Israelites and the God they served had spread all over Canaan. From the pillar of cloud that led them through the desert to the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, the supernatural occurrences that seemed to follow the Israelites struck fear in the hearts of the Canaanites.

The Bible also doesn't tell us what exactly Rahab believed, but it's safe to assume that she was pagan, just like the other citizens of Jericho. A God who walked among his people, provided bread for them from the sky, made water flow from a rock, and engraved His law on stone tablets, written by His own finger, was completely at odds with the silent, empty stone idols Rahab had served her whole life.

I can't imagine the terror and fear she must have felt upon receiving the king's message. Not only was she harboring foreigners, but she was also providing refuge to a people whose God was very real, very tangible, and had promised to destroy her city.

And yet Rahab didn't falter.

She took the men onto her roof and hid them among stalks of flax. Then she sent a message to the king, saying, "Yes, the men did come to me, but I didn't know where they were from. At nightfall, when the city gate was about to close, the men went out, and I didn't know where they were going. Chase after them quickly, and you can catch up with them!" (Joshua 2:4-5)

The king believed her and sent his soldiers to pursue the two spies.

Honestly, we could just stop the story here. The fact that Rahab was brave enough to hide the two spies is nothing short of heroic. But there's more.

Before she lets them go, Rahab goes up on the roof and gives the spies one of the most heart-wrenching speeches in the Old Testament. "I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan. When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below. Now please swear to me by the Lord that you will also show kindness to my father's family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to them, and save us from death." (Joshua 2:9-13)

Courage and Faith

I think often we've grown up with this story, and gloss over the details of Rahab's rescue of the spies and skip right to the triumphant tumbling of Jericho's walls. But there is so, so much more to this story, and so much more we can learn from it.

First of all, it wasn't just that Rahab was brave (although she was, and that's a major part of the story!). Let's go back and see what she leads with.

"I know that the Lord has given you this land."

Oh, I think I just felt a shiver of delight.

Because.... Rahab led with faith. She believed that the Lord had given the land to the Israelites. And then she goes on to say, "...For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below."

It was because she believed that she had courage. Every single thread of faith in her soul had been planted for this moment.

Because true courage is born from true faith.

And God rewarded Rahab richly for her faith. When the Israelites came into Jericho and tumbled the walls, her house was spared. Not one soul of her family was lost. (Joshua 4:22-27)

Our Response

Just like Rahab, we have opportunities all around us to exercise our courage.

But first, we have to acknowledge Christ and believe.

When we surrender, when we really, truly accept Christ as King, repent and believe in his name, courage comes from that. God takes our tiny little grain of faith and grows it into something miraculous and empowers us to stand for His name.

It's crazy, right? Crazy to think that God would be able to give us, weak, trembling creatures that we are, the courage of a lion.

That's how amazing and awe-inspiring our God is though. He uses what is lowly to shame the powerful and mock the wise.

Rahab, the prostitute, the woman who had lived most of her life as a pagan, was gloriously transformed. Soon after Jericho's destruction, she married a godly Israelite man and had a baby, whom she named Boaz.

YES. THAT BOAZ. THE GUY WHO MARRIED RUTH.

Which means that Rahab makes an appearance in Jesus' genealogy.

I mean, how wild, that a woman with such a horrible past would be part of the lineage of the very Son of God.

Rahab also makes an appearance multiple times in the New Testament, in the books of Hebrews and James.

This is why Rahab is such an instruction for us. It's because of examples like her, that we can point to the mess we once lived in, the ugliness, the mud, the frayed edges we can never put back together; lift our hands to heaven and say, "But God."

God is the one who redeems our lives and our struggles.

And when we have true faith in His holy and righteous work in our lives, that's where true courage is born.

Take heart, dear reader. Our God has overcome the world, and day by day He will make your courage grow. ♥

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Hi! I'm Mira, and I'm the creator of The Vintage Heart blog. First and foremost, I'm a Christian, saved by grace alone. But I'm also a homeschooled sixteen-year-old girl growing up in Midwest America, who loves reading, writing, music, my dog, my amazing family, podcasts, theology, exploring my faith, rainy days, tea and converse high-tops. My hope is that my writing will be a source of encouragement for you and remind you that you're not alone. It's okay to be scared of the future and the unknown realities we face, but we also need to go out and face the dragons of today at some point. Jesus has promised to be with us always-- with that in mind, we should be bold about our faith and the hope that we have within us!

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Hope you enjoyed this amazing post by Mira and don't forget to check out my post on The Vintage Heart, here.