Rahab the Amorite Prostitute

Description

Did God really intend for a prostitute to be in the family tree of His son, Jesus Christ?

Always in the details, and known to punctuate His Word with twists and turns, God purposefully put a woman who was considered to be unworthy in society’s eyes into the position of being a highly regarded child of God.

By intentionally including Rahab, the prostitute into Jesus’ ancestry, God guaranteed that His Masterplan would unfold just as He planned, pointing forward to demonstrate that all people who repent and have faith and trust in Him are welcomed into His family.

The story of Rahab, taken from the Book of Joshua, can be considered to be one of the most evangelical of all of the Old Testament.

With parallels to the book of Revelation, Rahab’s story foreshadows how believers can only be saved from a broken, chaotic world through belief in almighty God, and His son Jesus Christ.

With the city of Jericho burning, and the fortress walls crashing around her, Rahab was faced with doing only one thing, being to have faith in the one, true God. With a rope dangling from the window of her house to identify her as a believer to the Israelites, Rahab had hope that its scarlet color was the identifying sign that would guarantee her salvation.

We today are still saved by scarlet – the scarlet blood of Jesus Christ.

Just as the scarlet rope saved Rahab, we as Christians have hope in the scarlet blood of Jesus Christ for our salvation.

We, too, live in a world that is broken and literally crashing down around us. However, as believers, we are baptized in the blood of Jesus, standing firm in the hope for eternity.

As written in the book of Revelation, eternity for believers will be spent in a relationship with the Lord in His creation of the New Heaven and New Earth. Because of Jesus’ sacrificial atonement for our sins, our broken relationship with God will be restored, and His Masterplan to save humanity will finally come to fruition.

With the overarching theme of repentance, the story of Rahab with her sordid background can be applied to our lives today. As is emphasized throughout the Bible, due to His amazing grace, God is accepting of all people if they repent of their sins and turn to Him in faith. Everyone has the opportunity to be welcomed into God’s fold.

In this installment in the series Ancestry. Jesus titled “Scarlet Still Saves” we take a behind the scenes, contextual look at the very interesting ancestor of Jesus Christ, Rahab the prostitute.

Putting Rahab’s story into the context of the day we will see how a pagan-worshipping Amorite prostitute went from living a lowly, unworthy life to being transformed to living the life God meant for her all along.

Risking her life to protect the Israelite spies who were on a reconnaissance mission to Jericho, Rahab gave the Israelites the spiritual edge they needed to fully put their trust in God and conquer the Promised Land.

Through her courage and faith in the Lord, Rahab, the prostitute, converted from being a pagan worshipping Amorite, to a woman who loved and had tremendous faith in the Lord.

We will see how once known as Rahab the prostitute, she is now known as Rahab the redeemed to become a child of God. Through God’s grace, and Rahab’s repentance and trust in the Lord, she has become His child, worthy of His love and welcomed into His family.

Similarly, with our repentance and trust in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, He will be our God and we will be His children.

“Behold I am making things new.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

(Revelation 21:5-7

About the Author

Jana Jones McDowell DVM, DAVCA, DAVECC, has spent a lifetime practicing Veterinary Medicine and former Professor at a College of Veterinary Medicine.

A Christian, Dr. Jones began her research into Biblical studies a number of years ago, focusing on “context.”

Her research revolves around the  “context,” with the study and application of the Judaica Books of the Prophets and the Hagiographa (A new English translation of the Hebrew Masoretic text and commentaries by Rashi and other Rabbinical scholars), and the books of the Midrash Rabbah. The basis of this was the exegesis of the Hebrew Bible with application to the origins of Christianity.

Dr. Jones-McDowell continues her research on the Jewish roots of Christianity as a student of the Israel Bible Center.

Dr. Jones-McDowell and her husband, reside in the southwest with their horses, a Bengal cat named Ravi and their border collie, Sarah.