Rahab

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧

Parents, pick an object that you can hide around your home.  Ask everyone to look away or go be in another room as you hide your object.  Set a time limit, say 5 minutes, and let everyone look for the object.  ( if your kids are young, you can give hints like shouting “hotter”, if someone is close to the hiding place or “colder”, if they are getting farther away from the hiding place. ) 

If the object is not yet found after the set time limit, you may gather everyone around and reveal the hiding place.  

Playing hide and seek is always fun.  But sometimes not everything that is hidden can be found.  In our Bible story today, someone had to hide some people.  Let’s find out what happened.  

𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗

This month, we are going to look at some very interesting women from the Bible.  These women all have one thing in common - we can find them all in Jesus’ family tree.  It means they are Jesus’ ancestors.  Of course Jesus had other female ancestors but these women are special because their stories are mentioned in the Bible. 

The first one is Rahab.  We can find her story in Joshua 2.   

At this time, the Israelites were in the desert and they were set to go to the land God promised them.  But first, they had to conquer the nations living there.  

Joshua was leading the Israelites and he sent  two spies to scout the land of Jericho.  The men went there and stayed in the house of a woman named Rahab.  When the king learned that there were spies in his land, he quickly sent his soldiers to Rahab’s home to arrest them.  But Rahab hid them on her roof and when the king’s soldiers came, she misled them to look for the spies in another direction. 

When it was time for the spies to leave her home, she said to them, 

9 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 10 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘦𝘢 𝘴𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘌𝘨𝘺𝘱𝘵. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘪𝘩𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘖𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘈𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘯 𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳. 11 𝘞𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

Rahab was not an Israelite, yet she recognized God as the ruler of heaven and earth.  By hiding the spies, she put her own and her family’s  lives in danger because she allied with the enemy.  

In the end, her family was saved.  And centuries later, the Messiah would come from her lineage (Matthew 1:5).  What an honor! 

(You can continue reading the book of Joshua to find out what happened to Rahab and her family). 

𝗛𝗨𝗗𝗗𝗟𝗘

𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗞𝗶𝗱/𝘀:

𝟮-𝟲 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗹𝗱

What about Rahab’s story did you like? 

𝟳-𝟭𝟮 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗹𝗱

Rahab risked her life in order to follow God.  What one thing are you willing to risk  or to give up in order to follow God? 

𝗞𝗶𝗱/𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁:

Have you ever given up something because you knew it was the right thing to do and it would honor God? Tell us about it. 

Following and obeying God will sometimes require us to make difficult decisions and even sacrifices.  It is way easier to stay where we are and just go along with what everybody else is doing. But when we are willing to go beyond ourselves and our conveniences to follow God, we honor Him. 

Jesus also had to make this difficult decision and ultimately, his sacrifice.  Yet He chose to do it because He loves us.  

𝗣𝗥𝗔𝗬

Dear God, please help us to choose You always, even when it is difficult.  Help us to be strong especially when it is so much easier to take the easy way out. In Jesus’ name, amen.

𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥

As mentioned before, Rahab was not an Israelite.  How interesting that she is one of the women mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy.  Could it be that even as far back as the Old Testament, God already had a plan for all Gentiles? 

And even though she was not an Israelite and she lived as a sinful woman before she met the Israelites (Joshua 2:1), her name was included in the Bible as one of those who showed great faith (Hebrews 11:31).  Her faith certainly did not go unnoticed.  

𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦:  𝘩𝘵𝘵𝘱𝘴://𝘸𝘸𝘸.𝘣𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦.𝘤𝘰𝘮/𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘴/𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳_𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤/𝘳𝘢𝘩𝘢𝘣-𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴-9-13.𝘱𝘩𝘱