Rahab's passover

When I was in Amsterdam, like many other tourists, my friends and I went for a wander into the red light district one evening. For any unfamiliar with the story of Passover and Easter, wherever you may be scattered throughout our world, may you discover the mystery of how these two sacred festivals are connected by a red chord.

Rahab's story is in Joshua 2 - 6 in the town of Jericho around c.1400BC... yes we are going on a time machine journey!!

Some of you may have heard the story of Moses and the parting of the sea...Rahab's story is about 40 years on but to really make sense of everything we need to backtrack for a moment with a short history discover of the people of Israel, the Hebrews who found themselves stuck in Egypt.

So what were the people of Israel doing in Egypt in the first place?

It began with Abraham, his son Isaac, grandson Jacob and his twelve kids and so forth, known as the Hebrews or Israel. (That happened when Jacob had a wrestling match one night with God and his name was changed to Israel which means to wrestle, or contend with, God. According to the records of scripture God told Abraham he wanted to start a new community and teach people how to walk with him again. Abraham was actually a few generations down from Noah (think big boat). Humans had again been living as they saw fit, disregarding their Creator who would provide their needs and dwell with them, they had begun to consume one another, motivated by greed and fear due to their separation and broken relationship with God.

Abraham had learned about God from Noah and his son Shem. He was called out of a place called Ur (map to modern day Iraq) by God and told to go down to a new place (look at the Israel map to get an idea of the location).

Some of Israel's son's originally went to Egypt during a time of famine to get some food, but seeing the luxurious lifestyle of the Egyptians, when the crisis was over, they didn't want to go back to the wilderness desert and start a new life with God from scratch. They wanted the prime blue chip real estate down by the Nile, servants, good food and wine and the easy life.

All was going well until that which they grasped began to hold them there and eventually they became indebted to the Egyptians and ended up in slavery....

Generation after generation.

Enter Moses who after an initial period of self-pity and some time out in the wilderness minding sheep, get's the call from God.

So back to Egypt, Moses goes and starts negotiations with Pharaoh:

Moses: Let my people go.

Pharaoh: No thanks, cheap slaves, I need them to work.

Moses: Let my people go or God will send a plague.

Pharaoh: No!

So they go a few rounds, the plagues gradually increasing in severity (frogs, boils, Nile turns to blood, locusts, darkness) but the worst plagues don't move the hard heart of the Egyptian king, so God says to Moses, ok time for plan B.

The first passover.

and this is where we press pause to consider two other interesting references to a lamb:

Have a look at Isaiah 53 and see what you discover there.

And a man named John about 600 years later...

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind' and 'that the Word became flesh.'

then in verse 29....

'The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.” '

I will leave you to ponder that for now, back to Egypt....

So God tells Moses that each Hebrew family is to slaughter a lamb and place the blood of the lamb across the doorposts of their home to protect them from the final and worst plague - the death of the first born.

No one is to leave the home that night, they are all to remain indoors.

That evening (reference here) we are told that death passed through Egypt and struck down the first born of every family including livestock....'and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead'.

Those with the blood of the lamb on their house, however were protected. Not one life was lost in those homes.

It's the middle of the night, Pharaoh's son has died. The whole nation is devastated by grief.

"Get out!"

In fact the Egyptians are so terrified that they urge the Hebrews to leave, giving them gifts and valuables. So Israel leaves on foot with all of their own flocks plus the peaceful plunder from the Egyptians.

But even the loss of his first born son only slows Pharaoh for a moment and then regretting the loss of his slaves, he sends his chariots out to pursue Israel.

What happens next, God tells Moses to lead the people down to the edge of the sea, cornered!

What was Moses thinking, " God - what kind of military strategy is this. You saved us from death in Egypt only to drown us all in the sea?"

Then the Red Sea parts for Israel to go through but swallows the Egyptian army whole.... wiped out!

So fast forward to Jericho 40 years later. Jericho is the gateway city to this promised land God's people are supposed to live in.

The Hebrews are marching upon Jericho city.

Everyone in Jericho is 'melting in fear' because they heard about what the God of Israel has done. By the way in those days (and these days, big wink) everyone had a god, something, someone they found security in.

Up until recently, no one was too bothered about this mob of desert nomads, going around in circles in the desert. Since Egypt, forty years had passed where Israel simply wandered aimlessly in the desert, bickering and grumbling. They were supposed to take Canaan way back then but they chickened out. But things have changed, Moses has just graduated to glory and a generation of Israelites who rejected God's promise to be with them and refused to enter his rest, has now passed on.

The Hebrews cross over, [Hebrew IVRI means (they pass over) through the Jordan river, baptised - new blood, new hope, a new generation is ready to take up the promise of their new covenant [contract] with God. That's what it looks like on the face of it, but I reckon they were all probably melting with fear too.

Joshua however is now leading the troops and his faith is just as strong as it was forty years ago (so is Caleb's by the way, at 80 years he is an absolute firecracker, I hope to have his vitality at that age). Joshua sends spies in, just two this time, we don't want a repeat of last time. The more people that get involved the more chances there are that you'll get some naysayers piping up again and we'll be back to square one.

So... our two red blooded Hebrew spies (bigger wink) end up at a house of ill repute where Rahab the prostitute (we are back in Joshua 2) is the head dame. Everyone in Jericho has heard about Israel and what their God has been doing, you know plagues, death of the first born, parting the Red Sea and various other exploits since then.

These days people use other terms but the text tells us they were...'melting in fear'.

Defense wise, Jericho has some pretty good protection, the walls are famous, impenetrable by the standards of the day, they just need to keep these Hebrews out.

Rahab knows Jericho is in trouble, she negotiates a private peace deal for herself and her family, they make a contract with God. The Hebrews will make sure her family are unharmed when they crack into the city if she will send them on their way in safety, keep it all quiet and put a scarlet chord on the window of her house so they can remember where she lives.

Deal!

As I was reflecting on the story I realised in the mind of the spies the red chord on the window was more than just helping them find her house, to them it was also the symbol of passover that was only days away, the blood of the lamb on Rahab's house.

The Israelites are supposed to go and take an impenetrable city when God tells them go through a 're-commitment' ceremony - circumcision (read very painful process for adult men taking three to six weeks to recover physically). Holy smokes what else has this God got up his sleeve.

Joshua meets a man that he describes as the 'commander of the Lord's army' and is told to take off his sandals because he's standing on holy ground. The clues in the text suggest to me that this is the second person of the God head, the Son of God, the one who became flesh [cross references Genesis 17:3, Exodus 3:5 and Revelation 19:11-19].

He instructs Joshua in a victory strategy that doesn't require the military might of men. You see in human terms I'd suggest those walls were insurmountable, but nothing is impossible with God (Yeshua said that) and those walls do come down.

The only survivor's of course are Rahab and her family. Not only do they survive, but are welcomed into the Hebrew community. She becomes a great grandmother of Christ.

Rahab's story tells me we don't have to know it all in our journey of faith, we just need to take a step with what we do know and go from there. Rahab risked treason to throw in her lot with the God of the Hebrew's. Her actions revealed a heart of faith, she placed the mark of the Lamb on her house which led to her name being recorded in the 'Hebrews Hall of Faith' and her life being intricately woven into the story of Christ, the Lamb of God.

I encourage you to consider His covenant offer, the terms are very good, in fact it is very good news. May your family be richly blessed this passover and for whomever is still with me, here is a song to encourage you.

I'd love to hear what you discover in this story and how you might grab a hold of that red chord this passover, I'm waiting to hear from you.... cavanagh.c@gmail.com.