Is There a Little Rahab in All of Us?
She wasn’t the kind of woman you’d put on the church bulletin. No one was nominating her for Mother of the Year. And if you’d told the people of Jericho that this woman, this woman, would end up in the bloodline of Jesus, they would’ve laughed you right off the city wall.
But God wasn’t laughing. He was working.
Her name was Rahab. And her story is one of the most stunning pictures of grace in all of Scripture.
Here’s what I love about this moment in Joshua chapter 2. Israel is marching toward the Promised Land, and the fortress city of Jericho stands in the way. Joshua sends two spies into enemy territory, and where do they end up? At the house of a harlot. You can’t make this stuff up. God’s ambassadors, lodging with a woman the religious crowd would’ve crossed the street to avoid.
And yet, she’s the one who believed.
While the people of Jericho trembled behind their walls, Rahab opened her mouth and said something remarkable. She told those spies, “I know that the Lord has given you the land” (Joshua 2:9). She’d heard about the Red Sea. She’d seen God’s hand moving through history. And something inside her shifted. Faith took root in the most unlikely soil.
Here’s the thing we miss. There’s a little Rahab in all of us.
We’ve all got a past we’d rather not frame and hang on the wall. We’ve all fallen short. We’ve all had seasons where we looked more like Jericho than Jerusalem. And if we’re honest, some of us are still wrestling with the fear that what we’ve done has disqualified us from what God wants to do.
But Grace doesn’t see it that way.
God gazes past what we know we’ve done and sees what He knows we can become. He doesn’t wait for us to clean ourselves up. He meets us in the mess, just like He met Rahab, and whispers, “I can use you.”
Rahab turned from the world. She chose faith over fear. She surrendered everything, and God didn’t just save her. He put her in the lineage of the Messiah. Matthew 1:5. Look it up. It’s right there. A changed life, written into the greatest story ever told.
So, let me ask you what I ask myself: Have you changed? Not are you perfect? None of us are. But are you willing? Are you letting people see Christ in you? Is the grace of God so evident in your Monday that people want to know about your Sunday?
Because that’s the proof of a changed life. Not perfection. Surrender.
And if God can use Rahab, He can certainly use you.
Keep Looking Up!
Heaven is closer than you think.
May God bless your day.
Related devotionals: Woman caught in adultery · Sins nailed to the cross · Joseph (Matthew 1)
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If today’s devotional spoke to your heart, my books carry these same themes deeper. Stories of God moving in ordinary lives, scripture for tired pastors and weary parents, and steady reminders that heaven is closer than you think.