By: Dale Weckbacher
Joshua 2:8-9
Before the men[b] 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, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that
all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
If we were to have a theme for
the year 2020 so far, the theme would be fear.
While the year began like any other year with great expectations, it
soon became fearful when the coronavirus caused fear of sickness and
death. This fear motivated governments
around the world to implement drastic curtailments of personal liberty with
individuals willing to give up these liberties out of fear. Just when fear of the virus began to subside,
along comes the criminal actions of a police officer, killing someone he had
apprehended instead of arresting him and letting the justice system determine
his guilt or innocence. While the
criminal justice system has now focused on the guilt or innocence of the
officer, political opportunists with an agenda of transforming society into anarchy
are using this event to commit criminal acts by rioting in the streets, creating
more fear.
Rahab, like the other citizens of
Jericho, had fear, but her fear was not directed at the armies of Israel but
instead a fear of God. However, she did
not fear destruction at the hand of God but instead used her fear of God to
plead for mercy and risk being killed by the King of Jericho. Rahab feared God over man and was able to
view the situation from far off as demonstrated by,
1) Rahab’s
fear of God – As a prostitute, the normal course of action with two men
entering her house would have been to engage in prostitution with them. Rahab did not engage in prostitution with the
two men because she knew where they came from and out of her fear of God hid
them (Joshua
2:6-9). While this exposed her to
death at the hands of the King of Jericho should he discover she hid the spies,
Rahab’s fear of God was greater than her fear of the king. She understood that God was with the Israelites
and that it was not the might of the army that split the Red Sea or the defeat
of the kings of the Amorites but God who was with the armies of Israel (Joshua
2:10-11). Her fear of God causes her
to ignore death at the hands of the king and instead lie about hiding the spies
in her house and plead for God’s mercy (Joshua
2:6, 12-13).
2) Rahab’s
actions – Normally we would not condone lying and condemn Rahab lying about the
men who entered her house. However,
Rahab was not lying to protect her interests but instead risked death for
treason by lying to the officers of the king.
Rahab viewed the men entering her house as men of God from Israel and
out of her fear of God, risked death to protect them so they could return to
the armies of Israel and take possession of the land God had promised them (Genesis
13:14-14-18; Joshua 2:8). Rahab’s
actions demonstrate her fear of God over man and a willingness to risk harm,
and even death at the hands of man to be obedient to God. God’s people are to live in obedience to the
laws of man for government is an institution ordained by God (Mark
12:13-14; 1 Peter 2:13-17; Romans 13:1-7; Titus 3:1-2). However, governments and those in their
employ are flawed humans. The officer in
Minneapolis had anger issues that will come out during his trial, resulting in
the death of George Floyd. Thankfully
this officer is no longer on the streets of Minneapolis posing a risk to others
but his actions are not an indication that all police officers are murderers and
no reason to resort to violence and the overthrow of the civil society. Instead, the attention should be on better
training of police officers and regular psychological evaluations of officers
to determine if they have anger issues posing a threat to citizens they have sworn
to protect.
3) Rahab’s
reward – The walls of Jericho fell flat (Joshua
6:20) but not all of the wall for God, as promised, spared Rahab from destruction
for her fear of God over man, demonstrated by her risking her life to hide the
Israelite spies (Hebrews
11:30-31; Joshua 6:17). God will
protect those that fear Him even when the odds are against them, as they were
with Rahab should the King of Jericho have discovered her hiding of the
Israelite spies. Many in our society
today are taking a knee to honor racial injustice or in support of other issues
but God’s people are only to take a knee in worship and fear of God, trusting
God to deal with any injustices in the world.
Fear of anything other than God usually
results in making wrong decisions. Fear
of massive death due to Covid19 from flawed computer models led to panicked
decisions that needlessly shut down countries around the world, resulting in the
needless loss of jobs and wealth people worked all of their lives to accumulate. While any death is tragic, death for those
believing in Jesus as their savior is not the end, but the beginning of eternity
in the presence of God (2
Corinthians 5:1-10). Fear should not
be used to advance a political agenda condoning the destruction of property or
the killing of others and instead directed at fearing God who forbids the destruction
of property or killing others (Exodus
20:13, 22:1-15). If we are to take a
knee, may it be a knee before the presence of God in surrender to Him, allowing
him to deal with any injustice in the world.
For those reading this who have not made a public profession of faith in
Jesus as his or her savior, I invite you to do so now by praying with me,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans
3:23) and know that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans
6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my
sin and cleanse me as you promise in your Word (1
John 1:9). I believe you died, spent
three days in the grave, and resurrected from the dead and now declare you Lord
of my life.
May God bless everyone reading
this post and may we learn to fear God over the fear of man.
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