Covid has unleashed anxiety of fear, or phobia, as the main emotion of our time.

But the Bible takes us from phobia to faith, because the most frightening thing is that you and I have a problem we cannot solve: How can we sinners get right with God?

The main message of the Bible is how God takes the most unsuitable, unfitting, undeserving instruments and weaves them to produce His most beautiful masterpiece  – from children of Satan and the world, to children of God.

God takes “cannot make it” people and transforms us into “You made it!” by God’s grace; “You made it!” by God’s mercy.

Hearing, believing, obeying

In today’s Bible text of Joshua 2:1-24, we read about the spies being sent into the land to check it out. As they go there, they meet a woman who shouldn’t be part of God’s Bible story.

They meet Rahab. And Rahab is a prostitute. But as you read this account, it would be tragic to focus on Rahab’s lies and miss Rahab’s truths that she confesses from verses 8 to 13.

We learn from the Bible that faith comes – not from above, not from within – but from the hearing of God’s Word. So how was Rahab’s hearing, believing and obeying?  

Rahab’s first confession is: “I know that the Lord has given you the land.”

She is confessing that Israel’s God, whose name is Yahweh, has a Might that is unparalleled. 

And then she moves on to the second part of her confession. She does not just believe that Yahweh’s Might is incredible and incomparable, she believes in Yahweh’s Majesty. There is no God in Canaan like this God. 

And finally, she believes in Yahweh’s Mercy, that as much as He saves Israel, this true and living God might even save her, a Canaanite prostitute, and her family.

And so for her, faith really comes from the hearing of God’s Word. 

We need to ask ourselves: How is our own hearing, believing and obeying? How is our faith in God’s Might, Majesty and Mercy? 

Propositional belief or personal belief?

I was in Bible College in Sydney, Australia. After a while I had a reputation for being late with my fees for college and accommodation. It was not a nice reputation to have.

One day one of my college mates came to our house and, after talking with us and ending the time with prayer, handed me an envelope. After he left, I opened the envelope. There was $500 in it.

It was God’s way of teaching me that I could be in Bible college studying God’s Word, but that was a propositional belief, not a personal belief.

I didn’t personally believe in God’s Majesty, in God’s Might, in God’s Mercy. Do you? 

From fallenness to fulfilment

By the time you come to Rahab in the New Testament, you read about her in the family tree of Jesus.

You mean this prostitute is included in Jesus’ family tree? Yes, amazingly so. And Jesus’ family tree includes Tamar, Ruth and Bathsheba. 

Tamar committed incest with her father-in-law. Bathsheba was, in one sense, forced to commit adultery with King David. 

And so God can work through our fallenness to fulfil His perfection. God can work through our sinfulness to fulfil His holiness. And God can work through covenant breakers to fulfil His covenant.

As John Piper said, nothing should be wasted; don’t even waste your sickness, don’t even waste your cancer. 

The main lesson is that God chooses to work His unthinkable salvation through unthinkable people, from Rahab to Tamar, all the way to the Lord Jesus. Have you experienced this?

My prayer for us in Singapore is this: That we would turn Godward in our lives, in our churches, and know that no one should be put in the “too hard to save” basket. No one should be put in the “cannot make it” basket – a grandparent, a parent, a spouse, a child, a neighbour, somebody at work.

Do you believe that? I pray so. 

Let’s pray together.

Loving heavenly Father, hear our prayers, hear our confession. So often we forget that You are this God of might, of majesty and mercy.

As we trace Your storyline from Rahab all the way to the Lord Jesus, we see how You work Your unthinkable salvation through unthinkable people for the unthinkable glory that is due to You.

And so we bow before You and pray that You burden our hearts as Singaporean Christians and burden our churches with this Godward passion to share the Gospel.

May we never put anyone in the “too hard to save” category or the “cannot make it” category. We pray that we will see people through Your eyes, feel for them with Your heart and move towards them by the power of Your Spirit.

We ask this in Jesus’ name for Your glory, Amen.

Reflect

1. Hearing, believing, obeying – which of these do you find most difficult to do?

2. Have you personally witnessed God’s Might, Majesty or Mercy in your life or in others’? How does that change the way you relate to God?

3. Who is God impressing upon you to take out of the “cannot make it” or “too hard to save” category?

Pray

1. Pray for a deep encounter with Christ that will take you assuredly from propositional belief to personal belief. “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5)

2. Ask for the heart and eyes of Christ, softened towards neighbours, colleagues, even strangers, propelling you to share Gospel hope with words and action. 

3. Intercede for Singapore – our leaders, our churches, all who live and make Singapore home – that even as we build a future for our families and nation, we would never lose sight of our true Future in Christ. 

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