My life has been filled with tragedy. In 1989 my sister Angel was killed in a car accident on her way back to college. And in 2002 my 2 year old nephew died suddenly from a life threatening virus. I dont' have time to go into great detail about these events, but needless to say those were the hardest times of my life!
I think we would all agree that in those times it's hard to see God. I have found that it is hard to find the good in times of tragedy. We usually sit around asking, "why me?" and "what now?" But what I have also found out through these hard time is God sees the bigger picture!!
I can't think of much darker lifestyle than prostitution. A lifestyle of emptiness, judgement, and heart break. And thats exactly where our heroine is standing at the beginning of this chapter. I would dare say that it is not the career choice any of us would choose, but I repeat God sees the bigger picture.
My family put our faith in the Lord and with the help of some great friends survived these tragedies. We have actually seen great things come out of these terrible situations. My mom and dad to this day get letters, emails, even Facebook messages from people stating what an inspiration my sister Angel was in their life. And my sister Cindy, she followed her dream of becoming a children's book author, because she was inspired by her 2 year old son's life. You see God saw the big picture for my family, we just had to let the dust settle before we could see it.
Rahab was putting life in danger. She was possibly making a horrible situation even worse. She knew she and her family would surely die if the King found out about her hiding the spies, but she placed her trust in LORD through the dark times, and when the dust settled she saw great things come out of the dark times.
You see, God honoured her faithfulness, not only by helping the Israelites later on destroy Jericho, but He used Rahab in a much bigger way than anyone would have ever expected. If you skipped up to the New Testament book of Matthew you will see in chapter 1 the genealogy of Jesus. If you read verse 5 carefully you will see it says, "Salmon son of Boaz, whose mother was RAHAB." That's right, this woman became apart of the lineage of the King of Kings!! God's plan for Rahab was much bigger than just the crumbling walls of Jericho, His plan involved the crumbling walls for all mankind.
So if you are in the midst of a very dark time, even though it maybe hard to see, just let the dust settle and you will see God's bigger picture.
John
I usually have so many thoughts when I read these blogs each day, but I usually keep them to myself cause I can go on and on about them. But, today, I have to share one comment, and it's THANK YOU!!!! Your blog touched my heart. It made me see Rahab in a different light. I hadn't really given much thought to her before, but your blog gave me a much greater respect for her. Thank you for being so open about the pain, that I'm sure,you, and your family daily endure. It's so nice to be reminded of how mighty God's power is, even in the darkest moments.
ReplyDeleteWow! Weaving Rehab into the line of Jesus and into His plan for redeeming the world? Once again, God loves to honor the righteous - even when they come from the most marginalized among us.
ReplyDeleteI guess we should have expected this sort of thing from Him!
I never knew that about Rahab's lineage. Wow! Very interesting point. When you learn things like this it is amazing to see how God put the Bible together. I glossed over this in Matthew so many times. So Boaz was the son of Salmon and Rahab? I am totally grasping here but maybe Boaz parents (background) had something to do with how kind Boaz was to Ruth? Just a wild guess. Great blog, John. Insightful and personal. Thank you.
ReplyDelete