Sun Kwak, “Rahab: The Welcome of God” (Advent 2025)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHh-26sFcgs

TEXT: Joshua 2:1-24

[1] And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. [2] And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” [3] Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” [4] But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. [5] And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” [6] But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. [7] So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.

[8] Before the men 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. [10] For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. [11] And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. [12] Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign [13] that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” [14] And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the LORD gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

[15] Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. [16] And she said to them, “Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” [17] The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. [18] Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. [19] Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. [20] But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.” [21] And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

[22] They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. [23] Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them. [24] And they said to Joshua, “Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.”

SERMON: “Rahab: The Welcome of God”

Robert Wuthnow was a professor at Princeton, near his 80’s today. His work primarily focused around sociology of religion. So, for his profession, he studied the behavioral patterns of what happens in religious gatherings. And one of the observations he made was related to small group gatherings. There are different versions of small groups. Our church has some that have recently budded. You have things like community groups, women’s studies, men’s studies. And the reason we gather in smaller groups is because unlike corporate worship services or larger group settings, the emphasis is not so much about speaking to and hearing from God. But rather, the emphasis is about speaking to and hearing from one another. It’s to know and to be known. It’s to listen and to be heard. It’s to see and to be seen. But listen to what Robert Wuthnow writes, after having observed some patterns regarding small group communities.

Small groups mainly ‘provide occasions for individuals to focus on themselves in the presence of others. The social contract binding members together asserts only the weakest of obligations. Come if you have time. Talk if you feel like it. Respect everyone’s opinion. Never criticize. Leave quietly if you have become dissatisfied’ … groups ‘fail to replicate the sense of belonging we have lost. Attending weekly meetings, dropping in and out as one pleases, shopping around for a more satisfactory or appealing group — all work against the growth of deeper relationships and true community.

What he said in the beginning of that lengthy quote is what captures the essence of the issue. That small groups mainly ‘provide occasions for individuals to focus on themselves in the presence of others.’ Did you catch that? This is using the community as a platform to focus on me instead of being used in the community to focus on others. So, according to Wuthnow, unless this is radically reversed as a whole, communities and small group communities that are designed to know and to be known, to listen and to be heard, to see and to be seen. These communities no longer combat self-centeredness and individualistic inclinations.

In our story today, we meet a woman who has been beaten down and battered by what was supposed to be her community. And so, we could say, perhaps, that she’s looking for something different. Because she gets introduced to the idea of a different kind of community. And immediately, she buys in. And what is it that she hears? We read in verse 14 this other-postured commitment toward her. Maybe something she’s never seen before. She hears — Our life for yours even to death! Because what breaks this cycle of members of a community exploiting others for their own benefit, causing more self-fixation and self-serving practices. What breaks this is something that counteracts that. Antithetical to this your life for me way of viewing community is this my life for yours story of this countercultural story found in the Gospel. And traces and signposts to this story of the Gospel, where the King left his seat of privilege, his rights, his palace in exchange for poverty, to be rejected at an inn, to be hung upon the cross. There are traces of this that Rahab finds in this interaction, where she commits to finding a new community with a new people under a different kind of King and Kingdom — not those that exploit but gives up and provides for us, creating spaces for those like Rahab to know and to be known, to listen and to be heard, to see and to be seen. And over in ch6v25, after the walls of Jericho collapse, the very walls her inn was fixed upon. There, we read that Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And Brian Habig, who’s a pastor in our denomination, says about this that this is about as close to and she lived happily ever after as we’ll find in the Scriptures. She found her community, the place where she was to known and to be known, to listen and to be heard, to see and to be seen. Where she felt the welcome of our God.

I spoiled the ending for you, so I want to backtrack and trace the steps to that happily ever after. And it starts here in chapter 2. And this story is a rather precarious story, because it not only involves an unexpected character in Rahab. But as a chapter, it’s actually not necessary from a narration standpoint. Commentators note that chapter 1 could continue straight into chapter 3. That in fact, it would make much more sense if chapter 2, as a whole, was just lifted up and out of the book of Joshua. So, chapter 2, from a literary perspective, is a bit of an unnecessary inclusion. And yet, here it is. Because much like the names on the genealogy, on the resume of Jesus over in Matthew 1, with these mothers of Jesus that we’re covering for our Sundays in Advent. These are names that you wouldn’t assume next to and associated with the coming King of the universe. And yet, there they are — not just as members of but as contributing members welcomed into the story of God’s family line to Christ. Because God has a special place in his heart for misfits. And not just for including but for dignifying misfits. And so, you might be able to say that Rahab fits right in. Someone, who like Tamar, was wronged by her society. But brokenness is God’s playground, and redeeming broken narratives is his penmanship. Because whenever the New Testament epistles make mention of her, she’s never just Rahab. But she’s always remembered as Rahab, the prostitute. And it’s a title that follows her, not because her shame followed. But because in the story of God’s grace, it’s a past that’s been redeemed. As some of you might know, we have a lot of David’s here at Christ Our Redeemer. And so, something that our friends James and Eddie have done is give each David a title with their name. David Logan, for example, is Dave from Church. Or, for short, just DFC. And you might be asking — Aren’t all these Daves from church? Yes, but you see, there’s only one Dave from Church. And there’s only one Rahab the Prostitute. And she’s specially known by her God.

I just mentioned Brian Habig. He’s a pastor in our denomination and someone I enjoy listening to. There’s a story he shared that’s always gripped me. And it’s something I share here and there to explain the purpose of having the long view in mind when it comes to trusting in God’s promises. He tells this story of something he’d observed when he was hiking near a river with his son. And what he recalls is something that caught his attention when he was taking a breakwhile on the hike. And they were sitting, just observing the river nearby. And what he noticed was that there was a pool of water that gathered along the side of the river. And in this pool, there was a leaf and some bubbles that were moving upstream and against the current. And so, he paused to look at it to consider this anomaly. Because if you were to merely look at this moment in isolation, it would look like the current of the river went upstream. But when you took a step back, you would realize the bigger picture. That in seeing the whole river, you would know that the river ultimately flows downstream. That eventually, everything goes downstream — even that wayward leaf and those rogue bubbles. And that’s the power of central narrative of God’s promises throughout the Story of God. Everything flows downstream, into God’s grace and toward the person of Jesus — even those rogue bubbles and wayward leaves.

I can imagine that for Rahab, she’d lived quite a life. Prostitution, during this time, was not so much a choice but a situation put into, a circumstantial happening. And so, she’s had quite the story, with a lot of moving parts. Hurtful, painful, shameful things that happened to her. That caused her to look toward a greater hope with new possibilities. And so here, it seems this remarkable woman was able to hear through the noise to listen in to a bigger story. Can you imagine the things that flowed against the stream in her story? Who knows how and what placed her in the situation she was in. But there she is, in the inn, in this public place of scandal and sinful occurrences. And yet, even these wayward leaves and rogue bubbles were not isolated away from the promises of God. But eventually, these all go downstream with the bigger picture in view, that the promises of God always go downstream. And it seems here that according to what Rahab heard, there was something about God’s Story that gripped her to where she would find it more compelling than her own wayward leaves and rogue bubbles — things that spewed out from her and things that happened to her. That in God’s Story, everything flows downstream into his love and grace and welcome.

When I was a first year student at Westminster Seminary California, I felt like I was two steps behind an already arduous climb and race. A lot of my classmates grew up in the Dutch Reformed Church, where they were spoon fedthe Reformed confessions and creeds. But that was like a foreign language, so I felt like I had to learn a whole new language to engage in theological discourse. But as you might know through our liturgy and worship service, these creeds and confessions and liturgical elements are things that I’ve not only come to learn but have come to love. And it’s my joy to share about them with you, to tie us into the history of God’s community who have participated in some of the same liturgical elements of our worship service. You look at our passage today, and what takes center stage from a literary standpoint — both in the very middle of the chapter, but also at the very center of this speech — is part of this confession made by Rahab we read in verse 11 — for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. This was credal language for the Old Testament Jew — the very words that the children of Israelwere spoon fed from an early age but something she would have to learn and buy into over time and with convincing. And here, this creed is right in the middle of one of the longest uninterrupted speeches recorded for us in the Old Testament.

And what we need to ask is — What lead to this confession? As we see in the words that follow, it’s about something she’s heard about. News got to her and those around her that there is a God who parted the Red Sea and swallowed up the greatest known superpower of that time. Rahab is most likely living in a tavern or an inn. It was likely a public place, but it was a place of public access. And this was a place where traveling merchants would have shared stories. And maybe she heard the Story of God there, perhaps, piece by piece. And it’s likely people talked about the destruction of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, as she herself recalls. But I imagine here that she’s pulled into and compelled by this story with an overwhelming enchantment. Here, she’s enchanted by something she hears that’s simultaneously foreign and yet familiar. It’s a little like what C. S. Lewis says when he talks the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. Things that we may not have personal experience with but things we hear about and know we’re created to long for. Because what Rahabheard was not just that there is this powerful and Almighty God. But there’s this mentioning of Sihon and Og. And what commentators note here is that these were people who were known, in particular, for their oppression against women. And here, when Rahab says with fullest confidence — I know you will take the land. She’s not saying this because she thinks that Jericho is easy to take, that these people were weak. Archaeologists say that these were some of the first walls to ever have been discovered. And with the remains lasting for so long, it’s likely that these were indestructible walls. And yet, she knows the God who parted the Red Sea. And it seemed to her, just as Israel was a helpless nation, he was not only powerful but sought after weak and vulnerable people just like her. In the tone of Liam Neeson, that this involves one with a particular set of skills developed over a long period of time that makes him a nightmare for people like those suppressing Rahab. And so, here’s Rahab, who’s envisioning this God who seems to crush the proud and the powerful and the wicked to bring liberty and justice to the weak and the poor. And in some way, she knew that her God was coming to rescue her.

There’s this video of a 9/11 survivor. His name is Joe. And in this interview, he’s recalling the day when everything came crumbling down. He worked on one of the higher floors, so he, along with the hoard of people on these levels had a lot of stairs to go down when the Twin Towers were hit. He recalls specific numbers, when remembering these moments. It was the 78th floor, where he recalled the building starting to sway. And this, obviously, created a certain overwhelming fear to the people going down the stairs. And to his memory, it wasn’t what you would expect, with this panic and shrieking. Actually, everyone was silent and running down in perfect order. And so, they’re all going down together in unison and deafening silence, for what felt like hours. But then, he recalls this moment when he’s on the 35th floor. And he’s sharing this, and he’s visibly verklempt. And he actually says that he can never talk about it without becoming overcome with this emotion. And he’s shared this story hundreds of times. But as he sees the 35th floor sign, all of a sudden, he sees these firefighters who are running up. And he could just see from the looks in their eyes that they knew they were going to die. That they were going up in order that some might get to come down. And they ran up to the certainty of death, because they took an oath — to solemnly swear to answer alarms, day or night, to act with all haste when going to fires and troubles, to wear their badges at all times.

And something about what Rahab heard and learned about God was confirmed in this commitment from these men in verse 14 — Our life for yours even to death! Here, she saw a God who was not only willing but committed to entering into the perils of his people and carrying them out to safety. Because you read this exchange of words from Rahab to these men of Israel, there are repeated mentions of an oath, of being guiltless, and of blood. And don’t we know another story? Where there is a repeated emphasis upon a promise, of guilt and innocence, and all tied to a story involving blood? And if it’s a firefighter’s oath to solemnly swear to answer alarms, day or night, to act with all hastewhen going to fires and troubles, to wear their badges at all times. To go up flights of stairs and to sacrifice their lives for the sake of fearful and helpless people. If that’s the commitment of imperfect and flawed people, what about the God who in perfect and absolute commitment came into what was shaking and rattling us, to ensure that he would save a destitute people to himself?

And Rahab here, we might say a bit like Joe, was in a structure that would soon start shaking and swaying. And maybe for some of you in here, there are these walls of Jericho. Things that seem indestructible, unbreakable, overpowering, overwhelming. Things that you once thought would protect you and provide for you, but they’ve turned out to suppressyou. Things that have trapped you and overwhelmed you for season — a particular sin, a tense relationship, a stuck situation, a traumatic past, a shame history. Maybe for some of us, these walls are swaying, they’re shaking. Whether it’s life without a loved one, difficulties in the home, heartbreak with your children — both in the home and out of the home. We might be at our whits end, but we confront these with the God who parted the Red Sea and who is on mission to save a helpless people. And you could say what you want about the injustice she’s experienced in Jericho. But for Rahab, this was all she’s ever known. This was her life. As unfortunate as it was, this was her entire experience. I once heard a counselor share that it takes an abused victim on average seven real attempts to finally disengage from the abuser. That they keep going back to their abusers, not because they find comfort with these malicious people. But because in their abuse, they feel the need to right the wrong in the narrative that is their life. And so, each time, they think they can make things right. And in this destructive cycle, the only way to disengage them is when you present to them a story and narrative more believable and convincing.

And where do we find that story where one commits — every wrong will be made to right? Where he is making all things new? The story of the one that links the confession of Rahab here in verse 21 — According to your words, so be it — to the confession of another mother of Jesus in Luke 1:38, when visited by the angel Gabriel — Let it be to me according to your word. For the story of Advent is not just about a story that God tells us from afar but by coming to us. For what was the birth story of Jesus? No room in the inn. Here, Jesus takes the rejection from even the likes of an inn, in order that we might have the welcome of God. In order that those like Rahab would feel the welcome of God. Not just being rejected by strangers and by innkeepers. But in being rejected by his own Father, who most perfectly knew him, heard him, and saw him, with whom he had shared the most intimate of relationships. In order to stretch out his hands, his arms, his welcome to the likes of Tamars and Rahabs and Ruths and Bathshebas into the family of God. According to your words, so be it. We take God at his word because Jesus the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And so, in our swaying walls and crumbling foundations, may we look upon the face of the one who committed his life to us, as he promised to his Father and Spirit, and as he promised to us — My life for yours.