I was reading about Rahab, the other day, the woman labeled only by what she did for a living in the city of Jericho. The countryside was stirred up with stories of the invading tribes of foreigners from Egypt, the people who had defied the strong-arm of the civilized world….and now, with rank upon rank of orderly tents, with livestock in droves, and with the mysterious power of a Living God going on above and before them, their advance was no small threat to the settled peoples along the Mediterranean. Especially when they began wiping out the cities of Canaan as they came west to the Jordan.

Rahab was marked by her trade, and it was the very public nature of her house that brought the Hebrew spies there, where no one would notice their comings and goings.  Only someone did and before long the king was hunting them down and they were hidden under the fabric-making supplies on the roof– the open-air household workshop of every industrious woman.

Rahab risked everything to hide them and lie to her own people.  Why would she trust a God she knew only by hear-say to cast her lot with the two spies in this dangerous game of conquest?  And then she hangs a scarlet cord out her window to identify her house to these foreigners, and it makes me think that maybe it was a signal she had used before, but for very different reasons, maybe for her own games of intrigue. Only now it stands for how she is leaving this life behind, and is ready to be marked by something new.

The whole story makes me wonder, not so much because of what she did, but about what came before her actions.  What was going on inside her heart that made her willing to risk it all in hopes of something better?  Maybe life was not so good where she was; maybe she had been longing for a change for awhile and couldn’t find a way out…until now; maybe when her neighbors were in an uproar over the news of invasion, the Breath of God whispered in her ear that He saw her and knew her, that He was coming.  Maybe He called her to follow, and she came, much like the fishermen that would leave their whole lives behind to come when they were called, a little over a millenium later. Or was she just a survivor, who knew how to recognize the changing tides and was willing to jump ship without hesitation in the face of certain destruction? God knew and already had her woven into the biological line of kings and the King of Kings..

When you are in a life-shaking place, a frightening place, and you can’t see your way clear, looking to Jesus will always find you the way to go.  And when He calls, the only right way to respond is to leave everything behind, whether or not it makes sense, and no matter if it is difficult. Leave it all and follow hard.

There was this letter in my box, several weeks ago now, from a young man following the Call into the unknown, tugging at him to turn down the comfortable job offers and go where he saw the hurting and the needy, even if he had no apparent way to pay his bills. And when he obeyed and followed, there was an unexpected job right where he was supposed to be all along.  He wrote this about his faith journey:

“I really struggled to follow my heart, but in the end I rested on the promises of God: ‘But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ (Mathew 6:33)
I can testify to how deeply personal and real God has been for me through all of this. He has demanded that I trust him. He has asked me to make some difficult decisions. He has asked me to be uncomfortable just so he could remind me how trustworthy he is. He has indeed been faithful to his word.
‘…if you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in darkness…he will satisfy your needs…’ (Isaiah 53:10)”

**You can read more about Rahab in Joshua 6.