Hearing Brings Faith | 2:8-13
Living Fearlessly
Daily Reading
8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof,
9 and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you.
10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon, and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
11 And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
12 Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token,
13 and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”
Today's reading was the living embodiment of the scripture set: Romans 10:17-21AMP literally evidence that this word is true using Rahab's situation:
17 So faith comes from hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the [preaching of the] message concerning Christ.
18 But I say, did they not hear? Indeed they have;
“Their voice [that of creation bearing God’s message] has gone out to all the earth,
And their words to the [farthest] ends of the world.”
19 But I say, did Israel fail to understand [that the gospel was to go also to the Gentiles]? First Moses says,
“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation (Gentiles);
With a nation that lacks understanding, I will make you angry.”
20 Then Isaiah is very bold and says,
“I have been found by those who did not seek Me;
I have shown Myself to those who did not [consciously] ask for Me.”
21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have stretched out My hands [in compassion] to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
Her city lived in fear because they knew the land they currently resided in was in fact to be inhabited by strangers that found their way to her doorstep. She knew of nothing directly, only by overhearing conversations that happened around her. She hadn't had direct interaction with God like Jesus and the lady at the well. She simply overheard the fear-filled conversations. But instead of being filled with the fear she was being fed, she chose to believe that God is God and walk in that belief. She didn't dismiss the fear but instead of hiding behind the protection of the walls she used her boldness to ask for her and her family to be spared.
She chose to welcome the people who would rightfully take the land into her home because she believed in faith that she would be sparred because not only did she fear enough to believe, she heard enough to know God can and will protect her.
Fear often triggers fight or flight but in Rahab, it triggered faith and belief.
How often have you been in a situation that created fear in you?
How was your childhood, did it create fear in you or hope?
When those key events happened, do you remember when you came to the crossroads of fear like Rahab?
