Category: Bible study

I will bless you…

When we think of the blessings of God, we often think of good things to make our lives better now.  Oh we  realize that God’s blessing to the believers includes eternal life, but often we really just what to feel blessed by God today.

Let’s look at God’s promise of blessing to Abram (later known as Abraham).  Read through the verses below and notice what is said about blessing.

Genesis 12

   1  Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you;  2  And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; 3  And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

 4   So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 

Did you notice the repeated phrase “I will“?  God’s promises of blessing at this point lack the specific details, we like to have.  And based on this general promise of future blessings God asked Abram to leave everything he knows (country, relatives, father) to go to a land that God will show him in the future.

Exchanging the known for the unknown…leaving all behind for the promise of future blessings…

Even though it may seem like a lot to ask, was God’s call to Abram really so different then Jesus’ call to us, those who He has called to be His disciples?

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ… Ephesians 1:3

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy Me.  He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.  Matthew 10:37-39

As believers in Jesus Christ we too must be willing to leave behind all that is familiar and go forward looking to Christ and the hope of the promised blessings that lay ahead.

Oh, by the way, did you notice that Abram was 75 years old when he started on this journey of faith.  God had plans for his man of faith, that started what we may think of as late in life.  We too need to trust God with our lives no matter how slow we may think He is about revealing His will for our lives.

The Rhab Report

She was known as Rahab the harlot.  So, how can she be an example to us??

When Joshua sent the spies into the land, they lodged at the house of Rahab the harlot.  After Rahab had sent the king’s men on a “wild goose chase”, she went to talk to the spies where she had hidden them.

Joshua 9 … “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted 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 utterly destroyed.  11 “When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

   (1) A godly woman knows and proclaims that the LORD is God

…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:9-10

Rahab knew the LORD God of Israel had given them the land, she knew by living in Jericho her life was in danger.  She could have asked the spies to take her with them that night, but instead…

Joshua 2:12  ”Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, 13 and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.“

2) A godly woman is concerned with the salvation of others

Rahab again helps the spies. In doing so she was turning her back on her past-she could never go back to life as it had been.

Joshua 2:15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall. 16 She said to them, “Go to the hill country, so that the pursuers will not happen upon you, and hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return.  Then afterward you may go on your way.”

(3)   A godly woman leaves her past behind and looks toward God

if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.  Ephesians 4:21-24

The men promised to deal kindly and faithfully to Rahab, if she did not tell of their business.  Rahab agreed.

Joshua 2:20 “But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be free from the oath which you have made us swear.”  21 She said, “According to your words, so be it.” So she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

(4) A godly woman finds hope in God alone

The Hebrew word for cord used here is also translated hope.  By tying the cord in her window, she was acknowledging her faith in God, the one true God to save her –her hope was in God alone

My soul, wait in silence for God only,   For my hope is from Him     Psalm 62:5

Notice when and why Rahab and her family were saved.

Joshua 6:20 So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city. 21 They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. 22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the harlot’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her.”  23 So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel. 24 They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 25 However, Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

(5) A godly woman endures through difficult times of life

But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. Matthew 24:13

If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; 2 Timothy 2:1

HEBREWS 11:31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

(6) A godly woman lives by her faith

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

JAMES 2:24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

(7) A godly woman’s actions give evidence of her faith

Rahab, a woman of faith.  Would we all be remembered so well…