Joshua 2:21 And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window.
God Responds to Our Faith
For many of the Bible characters that we think of, there is a certain title that we almost automatically attribute to their name. For instance, if I said, “David,” You would say, “King David.” If I said, “Goliath,” You would say, “Goliath the giant.” If I said, “Rahab,” Most people would say, “Rahab, the harlot.” This is because that is exactly what Rahab was, a sinful woman. Rahab was a Canaanite, a Gentile, and a part of a pagan people who were destined for judgment. And yet, in Joshua 2, we find a woman who lived by faith and responded to what she saw of God. God rewarded her faith.
In Joshua 2:9-10 Rahab told the two Israelite spies whom she had hidden, “I know that the LORD hath given you the land.” She then recounts all the things that her people had heard about God Jehovah. She continues, “For the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house.”
Verse 21 indicates that she responded to God by faith when she said to the spies, “According unto your words, so be it.” She trusted what they had agreed upon. She trusted the God of these men. She sent them away, and bound the scarlet line in the window which signaled Israel to leave that part of the wall untouched.
The wonderful truth is that God responds to our faith and obedience regardless of our past. Here is a woman who had nothing in her past to commend her to God, but who came clean with God by being honest about herself and with herself. This was a God she had not known and a people with whom she had not been raised, but when she saw the nature and power of God she responded in faith, trusting Him in obedience.
I don’t know what your past is, but I do know that God is more concerned about your faith in Him than your past in sin. Whoever and whatever you are today, God will respond to you if you have a humble heart of faith and obedience to Him.