Quote from Forum Archives on July 9, 2007, 10:25 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

SERIES: VBS 2007 #1/5

 

 THE PRICE OF FAITH

July 8, 2007

 

 

Text: Joshua 2:1-15

 

 

As has become my practice for several years now, I plan and preach a sermon series from the nightly Bible texts and stories of the annual Vacation Bible School curriculum.  This practice typically leads me, and consequently you, back to some of the familiar and cherished Bible stories we can remember from our own childhood, such as David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, Daniel and the lion’s den.  These and other Bible testimonies like them are the ones that are full of the action and adventure that capture the attention and imagination of children at VBS.  They capture the attention and imagination of adults, too.  Who doesn’t want the thrill of a good adventure story filled with the good guys overcoming long odds and adversity to defeat the bad guys and win the day?  Especially when the good guys are fulfilling the will of God.  This is all great stuff, and just as VBS provides an opportunity to break a bit from the ordinary ministry at church, so a series based on the VBS curriculum provides an opportunity refresh us in some of the classic Bible literature.

 

All is going as planned, and then I find out where the very first VBS Bible lesson is found.  The Bible point for the lesson is good: God is real.  The treasure verse is great: Jeremiah 10:10, “The Lord is the only true God.”  So far, so good.  But along comes the Bible story: Joshua 2 – Rahab protects the Israelite spies.  <Sigh>  I gather myself and read the chapter.  I pull my available commentaries and read them as well.  They all confirm the reality that I suspected: there are reasons why I have not prepared a sermon from this text.  They are right here in front of me; they have not gone away.

 

In all honesty, my immediate inclination was to substitute another text that testifies to the VBS Bible point that “God is real.”  I mean, you wouldn’t know, and I would save myself from facing three real problems this chapter raises for me.  But through this struggle, I decided to be honest with the VBS curriculum and preach from the text used by the curriculum.  I didn’t know how I would do it, but that was the way I was led.  Then, earlier this week during a meeting with a brother in Christ, while talking about a completely unrelated issue that had nothing to do with this, or any other, VBS curriculum, the meaningful, contemporary application of Joshua 2 broke through like a flood, and the Bible point is overtly, and even uncomfortably, true: “God is real.”

 

Before proceeding with this meaning and application, let me deal with the three concerns face me in Joshua 2.  First, Rahab is a prostitute.  Now some versions and footnotes in other versions tame this with the alternative meaning of “innkeeper.”  But when I refer to the commentators who deal with the Hebrew language, the meaning they use is prostitute.  Rahab being a prostitute is not so bad in and of itself.  There are other places in Scripture where prostitutes hear the Word of the Lord, are convicted, and are saved out of their sinful life.  That would be something I expect.  None of that is done in Rahab’s case.  There is no mention at all in Scripture, neither in Joshua 2, nor in Joshua 6, that Rahab changed her ways or had to change her ways.  That concerns me as a preacher who must deal with the Biblical text.

 

Second, the reason that Rahab and her family were saved from the destruction of Jericho is because she hid the Hebrew spies and did not turn them over to the king’s men who were looking for them.  “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from.  At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left.  I don’t know which way they went.  Go after them quickly.  You may catch up with them.”   (Joshua 2:4-5)  This is exciting stuff, folks; no wonder it’s part of this year’s VBS stories.  Only, there is a problem here.  Rahab knew exactly where the men had come from, what they were doing, and where they were hiding!  “But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.”  (Joshua 2:4)  Rahab outright lied, folks, and there is not one word in the Word that she did anything wrong.  “’Our lives for your lives!’ the men assured her.  ‘If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.’”  (Joshua 2:14)  Her request for safekeeping was honored because she hid and protected the Hebrew spies.

 

Third, Rahab was a traitor to her people.  The citizens of Jericho faced the threat of invasion from the Israelites; the king’s men were hot on the trail of a couple of spies; and Rahab sent them on a wild goose chase.  Believe me, I do not think very highly at all of any of these Americans who have gone to fight for the Taliban or al-Qaeda.  But Rahab’s treachery resulted in her being included in the lineage leading to the birth of Jesus, as we read from the genealogy from Matthew 1:5, “…Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab…”

 

This account of Rahab does not lead me to suggest that we abandon the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” or the ninth commandment, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”  (Deuteronomy 5:18 & 20)  Neither does it lead me to suggest that we all turn traitor to the nation whose birthday we celebrated last Wednesday.  So how do we deal with these troubling parts of Joshua 2?  In all honesty, I did not know when I learned that his was the VBS Bible story for the first night, and I do not know now.  The testimony of Joshua 2 is what it is.  I told you I had my reasons for steering clear of it as a sermon text.

 

However, this is not the truth about Joshua 2 that makes us the most uncomfortable.  This is not the truth that convicts us and leaves us standing on shaky legs.  This is not the truth that leaves us withering in fear before an all-encompassing, all-powerful God.  Here is the truth from Joshua 2: when we know that God is real, we must do something about it.  When we know that God is real, we cannot sit on the sidelines.  When we know that God is real, we have no excuse for our failure to obey.  None of those other issues hold even a pennies worth of importance compared to this.

 

Rahab told the spies, “I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you…  When we heard of it, our hearts sank and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”  (Joshua 2:9, 11)  According to Scripture, everyone in the land knew that the Israelite’s God was the God of heaven and earth.  According to Scripture, this knowledge caused everyone’ hearts to sink and courage to fail.  According to Scripture, only Rahab acted in accordance with this revelation and knowledge.  According to Scripture, only Rahab and her family were spared from the destruction of Jericho.

 

Turn to James 1:22.  All of verses 19 through 27 deals with this, but verse 22 gets the message across quite nicely: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.”  The King James Version is familiar: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”  Rahab heard the word: “…for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”  Rahab heard the word, and could have told the spies to leave her house.  Rahab heard the word, and could have told the king’s men where the spies were hiding.  Rahab heard the word, and could have been given a hero’s honor because she betrayed the hidden enemy.  Rahab heard the word, and could have perished along with every other citizen of Jericho.  Rahab could have been a hearer, but not a doer.  If this doesn’t make us sit up and take notice, I don’t know what will.

 

God has given us a remarkable gift.  It is a priceless gift.  It is grace.  Jesus, the Lamb of God, shed his blood for our sins.  We remembered that last week as we observed communion.  In one sense, God’s grace is “free.”  It is freely given by God in that it is available to anyone who believes in Jesus as Lord and in that we do not pay anything for it.  Indeed, there is nothing we have that could come close to paying for it.

 

In another sense, God’s grace is not “free,” as in without cost.  It cost God the suffering and death of His only begotten Son.  Through that tremendous cost, we receive God’s grace by believing in Jesus.  In response to the question of the Philippian jailer, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…” (Acts 16:30-31)  Therefore, we are saved by faith by our belief of the testimony and work of Jesus.

 

Saving faith has a price.  That’s the point in James 1.  That’s the point in Joshua 2.  God is real.  That certain belief leads us to the inevitable conclusion evident throughout the Bible that, therefore, His promises and his instructions are real.  Nowhere does God tell believers to respond to an altar call or silently pray a believer’s prayer, and then go live our lives as we see fit.  I doubt that anyone here this morning wishes more than I do that this was the case.  I would love it, or think that I would, if I could say, “God, I believe in Jesus.  Now why don’t you take those problems and challenges You keep laying at my feet and find somebody else to deal with them?  Besides, I need more time to read the Bible.”

 

Even in the Old Testament, well before anyone had the opportunity to know of God’s ultimate sacrifice of love in Jesus, I can find an answer to my question.  Rahab heard the word and could have refused to act on it.  She could have refused to apply it to her life.  She could have refused to do what she knew she believed.  And she could have perished along with all of the other people who heard the word and also refused to do the word.  Rahab heard the word and did what her faith required of her.  Don’t you think that Rahab knew what would happen to her and her family if the king’s men had discovered her treachery?  Don’t you think that Rahab was frightened more than ever before in her life as she contemplated the price of faith?  Don’t you think that Rahab wondered repeatedly if she was doing the right thing?  I do.  I think that every step Rahab took was a painful, agonizing, uncertain step.  But they were steps of faith that led to God’s blessing.  That was Rahab’s price of faith.

 

We demand a lot from children.  When they would rather be loud and hyperactive, we demand that they be quiet and reserved.  When they would rather keep their toys for themselves, we require that they share.  When they want to eat ice cream, we require that they eat broccoli – or Brussel sprouts.  When they would rather stay up late, we require that they go to bed.  Even though VBS is a break from normal church activities, adult leaders still strive for controlled chaos.  We expect children to respond to discipline.  In fact, adults even expect children to respond favorably to discipline and to even appreciate it because it’s good for them.

 

In three Sunday nights, we’re going to teach all the children at our VBS that “God is real.”  We’re going to teach them that because God is real, then they should do what God says.  I think that it’s easy to forget what it was like being a child.  There were real blessings and rewards attached to doing what responsible adults taught.  If nothing else, it kept us alive a little longer.  After all, it was dangerous to play in the street, and not everything we stuck in our mouth was good for us.  Don’t you think that since we are going to teach them, then we had better be doing it ourselves?  James went on to say, “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”  (James 1:23-24)  Let’s not forget what we are supposed to look like as we are shaped in the image of Christ.

 

The price of faith for Rahab seems pretty steep to me.  I don’t think that anyone here is facing quite that enormous a step of obedience – at least not to my knowledge.  But I do believe that everyone here is facing a step, or steps, of obedience.  We’re trying to meet quite a few ministry needs that have been made known, and they aren’t slowing down.  I don’t expect us to do everything, but maybe God expects us to do more.  It’s not just financial support that the Bible is talking about.  It doesn’t say anything in Joshua 2 about Rahab giving the Hebrews a dime of financial support.  She responded to God with her hands and feet.  When she accepted and believed the word that “God is real,” she was personally involved.

 

There are still many ways to be personally involved in ministry today.  And since we believe that God is real, then we have to be.  I hear about plenty of requests for mentoring: released prisoners, reading to children in school, discipling of new Christians.  I hear of requests for assistance with physical tasks or helping with transportation needs.  Odds and ends like that.  Not everything is a full blown church program.  In fact, since we have just celebrated another July Fourth, it occurs to me that we are more like the militia minutemen than we are the Continental regulars.  We’re not capable of fighting the whole war, but we are capable of responding on short notice to this need and that need.  They usually don’t last long, but when the issue arises, that’s when we need to respond with a Rahab moment.  “God is real,” so here is what I am going to do for Him in this moment.  Being prepared is nice – we should strive to be prepared for ministry – but being willing is critical.  I don’t know how prepared Rahab was to do what she did, but she clearly demonstrated her willingness to follow God in the moment given her.  May it be likewise for us.

 

“…for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”

 

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

170 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

[email protected]

www.bhfirstbaptist.com

 

 

 

 

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