A letter from a woman redeemed
Photo by Will O on Unsplash
Joshua 2
~~~
Dear Friend,
I want to tell you about my miracle.
I grew up in a city called Jericho. I belonged to a people who had no regard for God, and from an early age I was taught to live for myself—simply for whatever I thought I desired. The problem was… life was really hard, and women in my day were not considered to be of much value. To make a long story short, in an attempt to support my family as best I could, I found myself as a young woman in a life of prostitution. My quality of life was beyond horrific; however, I was able to provide money for my family—my father, mother, brothers, and sisters—but not without significant cost to my emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. To put it simply,
I was broken.
My house wasn’t in a great part of town. In fact, it was kind of in the slums, literally built into the city wall, which is perhaps how the spies found me. Yes, spies. Two men entered from outside the city wall, and I knew they were a part of the people we had come to fear—a massive group called Israelites. They served the God known as YAHWEH. My people were terrified of the Israelites because we’d heard about their incredible God. We’d heard how their God had led them mightily and powerfully for decades; we’d heard of the miracles He'd performed for them, like parting the waters of the Red Sea so they could escape those who had enslaved them for centuries.
Looking back, I wonder if our fear wasn’t out of God’s merciful conviction in our hearts, for we knew we were living wrongly. We valued ourselves at the expense of others. We worshiped whatever we wanted, and (I can articulate this now, though I couldn’t at the time) we lived into the desires of our flesh rather than our spirit.
Even though I was in a detestable profession; even though I never learned about the love of God, something in me desired Him so deeply. I ached inside with the hope that there had to be Something else, Something more, Something better and beautiful.
It was as if I had faith in a God I didn’t even know but desperately desired. So, when the spies came to my house, I wanted to help them. Because the truth is I, too, believed in their God.
I ended up hiding the spies on my roof so I could answer to the king’s messengers without them knowing the spies were there. Once the messengers left, I lowered the spies from my roof with this scarlet cord I had, and I told them I knew their God had given them our land. I told them my people were terrified of them because of their God’s might and power. I told them to go hide in the hill country for three days, then to go on their way, and their pursuers would not find them. I made them promise to show me and my family mercy and save us from death. They assured me they would.
In return, the spies wanted me to keep my end of our oath by keeping my family inside my house and putting the scarlet cord in the window—the same one I’d used to lower the spies from the roof—so they could recognize my house. Basically, because of the scarlet cord, they would know to pass over my house.
That scarlet cord… it was somehow like a means of redemption and grace for me. It was my way of acknowledging that I believed in their God, and their way of extending forgiveness, mercy, and life to me. I know it might sound odd, but I pray that somehow everyone could experience a scarlet cord in their life. Because that was how my miracle came.
My encounter with those men led me to an encounter with the Living God. My miracle was that God redeemed me. He freed me from my brokenness and shame. He made me new.
My hope in God was affirmed to me… as the men hid in the hills for three days. It was affirmed to me as they passed over my house marked by the scarlet cord. It was affirmed to me in the peace I felt as I began to pray to YAHWEH—the Living God—Who had saved and performed miracles among the people of Israel all those years. It was affirmed to me in the love I received from Salmon, the man who became my husband. It was affirmed to me in the recent birth of my beautiful baby boy, Boaz.
My love for God is deep. My faith in God is strong. My hope in God is real, for...
He made me new.
And what God did for me, He can do for you.
Each day, as I entrust my son to the Living God, I pray his faith would be strong. I pray he would become a man of wisdom, generosity, kindness, and love. I pray with all my heart that God would somehow use Boaz to further His work of Redemption in the world.
And I believe He will.
Redeemed by Grace,
Rahab
~~~
Ruth 2
Matthew 1
~em