November 5, 2024

Joshua 6:22-27  (HCSB)
Rahab and Her Family Spared
22 Joshua said to the two men who had scouted the land, “Go to the prostitute’s house and bring the woman out of there, and all who are with her, just as you promised her.” 23 So the young men who had scouted went in and brought out Rahab and her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel. 24 They burned up the city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house.
25 However, Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father’s household, and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy on Jericho, and she lives in Israel to this day. 26 At that time Joshua imposed this curse: The man who undertakes the rebuilding of this city, Jericho, is cursed before the Lord. He will lay its foundation at the cost of his firstborn; he will set up its gates at the cost of his youngest. 27 And the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

TW Mitchell
Have you known someone who you believed was too unsavable? Maybe that person seemed too wild, mean, selfish or just plain stubborn. Some of the meanest guys I ran with in school became preachers and pastors. As believers, sin once ruled our lives, too. Joshua’s name means salvation. Rahab’s name means arrogant. Could Rahab’s harlotry have kept her from being saved? Remember the scarlet thread? To her it was the only hope for them to be spared from destruction. The scarlet thread of God’s redemptive love still provides hope to everyone who will receive it by faith. Each of us must constantly remember how sin once ruled our lives. One day a young girl asked her mother, “Mama, why do you have so much gray hair?” Her mother looked at her daughter and said, “Every gray hair is representative of a time you were disobedient to me. I have gray hair because of your rebellion.” Genuinely puzzled, the girl asked, “Mama, so are you the reason Grandma has so much gray hair, too?