Reminders from Rahab: Holy Fear

There's much to learn about this Joshua 2 story of Rahab and the spies - much more than I'll write in this short-ish post - but as I read the account during my quiet time with God this morning, several important reminders were freshly imprinted on my mind & heart, a significant one being about the fear of the LORD.

Rahab was a pagan prostitute in Jericho who welcomed the spies from Israel into her home and hid them on her rooftop, sending the Jericho authorities another way when they came searching for them.

[Rahab said] "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." Joshua 2:9-11

Rahab did not harden her heart to the testimonies she heard about the God of Israel. She responded with holy fear, with an admission of truth that she believed by faith: "The LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." Upon a first reading it looks as if Rahab only did what she did because she only selfishly feared for her own life; what's the holy fear in that?  The faith she had was small and new. She had not been a professing worshipper of the God of Israel, but here and now she recognised that He is Almighty, Lord over all, supernatural with authority over even the human authorities of Jericho under whose rule she came under. She attributed that worth to God by faith: She attributed to Him a mighty rule above her human government, and demonstrated that when she risked hiding the spies. Essentially, she said through her actions: "The God of Israel is Mighty Lord over all."

An unholy fear is a misinformed fear of God that threatens and forces us into joyless obedience. This wasn't necessarily true of Rahab. For her, the beginnings of a holy fear for God were seen: a recognition of His great power and supernatural might, and a natural response of worship, inducing her to action. For us Christians now, having received Christ: when we fear God and obey Him, it doesn't exclude a sober knowledge of His supremacy & might (which Rahab had, and which many lukewarm Christians forget to nurture), but instead marries it securely with a steady understanding of grace and salvation; this union produces joyful obedience.

Rahab was a pagan prostitute, yet she was commended in the New Testament for her faith (Heb 11:31) and the accompaniment of her faith by works (Jas 2:25-26). With the small but surely effective recognition of God's supremacy and might that she had, it enabled her to be a part of God's authored will for the universe. It begins with fear, and a direction of that fear to the transforming knowledge of grace: And that enables us to walk obediently & joyfully in God's will.


And here I'll throw in another important thing I learned: The Israelites walked not in their own might and  name, but in the name of God. That is what inspired fear in Rahab's community. Our testimony of God's supernatural power is important. We can't boast in our own might: We can only boast all the more in our weaknesses because through them God's supernatural light can be seen all the more. The testimony of the parting Red Sea was so important for the Israelites, and it boasts nothing of the Israelites' own abilities - nothing at all. It only boasts in the mighty hand of God. For us who are in Christ, we boast in the Gospel - which says nothing of our merits, if only our demerits (How wicked, depraved and worthless we must be for the Righteous Son of God to have to hang on the cross to pay for our sins.) Boast in this - the pinnacle display of God's faithfulness, power, love and glory - and not in our own works & so-called strengths. Go in His Name and boast in His might, not in your own.

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