J6-12: Rahab Is The Pattern And Principle For How A Gentile Is Saved

“Y’hoshua said to the two men who had reconnoitered the land, ‘Go into the prostitute’s house and bring the woman out with all that she has, as you swore to her.’ The young men, the spies, went in and brought out Rachav with her father, mother, brothers and all she had; they brought out all her relatives and put them safely outside the camp of Israel.”-Joshua 6:22-23

Let’s talk a little bit about Rahab today.

Rahab represents what it means to be saved as a gentile.

Think about it.

At one time in her life, Rahab was an enemy of Israel.

In fact, she was born an enemy of Israel.

She was born a GOY (a gentile) and lived a heathen lifestyle (heck, she was a whore!).

However, she came to the life-saving realization that all the gods she had worshipped all of her life were false and that everything she had counted as valuable in her life was absolutely meaningless.

She arrived at a point in her life where she had to make a choice.

Stand with God and His People and live…

…OR…

….deny God and His people and be destroyed.

There was no middle ground, no sitting on the fence, and no “let me think about it” nonsense.

This is a choice that at one time or another, every human being on this planet will face.

And don’t give me this philosophical “But what about those who have never heard of Yeshua?” nonsense.

In this online connected world we live in today, such a thing is practically impossible.

And the Apostle Paul also answers this argument quite persuasively in the Book of Romans when he says…

“…what is known about God is plain to them, since God has made it plain to them.  For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities — both his eternal power and his divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse“.

Anyway, back to Rahab.

Fortunately, we know she made the right decision to side with God and His People.

And once she made that decision, she was counted as saved even while still living amongst the enemy.

Now there’s something real super cool here I want you to catch.

Notice in verse 23, it says that Rahab and her family were safely transported outside of the fallen walls of Jericho and placed OUTSIDE OF THE CAMP OF ISRAEL.

However, just a few verses down in verse 25, we’re told that “she lives among the Israelites to this day“.

In other words, she transitioned from residing OUTSIDE the camp of Israel to living INSIDE the camp of Israel.

The significance of this for gentile believers today is mind-blowing.

When a gentile believer accepts the Jewish Messiah Yeshua as his or her savior, that person is taken to a safe place where he or she will not be destroyed.

Yet that person is still OUTSIDE of the camp of Israel.

Of course, the fact that the so-called early gentile church fathers promoted a false theology that stated “believers in Christ have replaced God’s originally chosen people” didn’t help.

These gentile church fathers established doctrines that said “belief in Jesus” meant walking a separate path from Jewish believers.

Never mind the fact that all the early believers were without exception Jews.

And folks, this is where a good majority of gentile believers stand today.

They are residing OUTSIDE of the camp of Israel.

They want Israel’s God and they want His son, but they don’t want His people and they don’t want His Law and His commandments.

For the most part, the gentile believer wants to stay outside of the camp of Israel.

However, that wasn’t the path Rahab took.

At the proper time, she entered into the camp of Israel and became one with God’s people.

I’m reminded of what Ruth said to Naomi..

“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
-Ruth 1:16

Don’t get me wrong.

If Rahab had decided to stay OUTSIDE of the physical camp of Israel, technically speaking, she still would have been “saved”.

She had certainly been “saved” both physically and spiritually and it would have been perfectly fine for her to live out the rest of her days outside the camp of Israel.

But why stay outside the camp when she had the chance to move inside the camp?

Well folks, in verse 25, we’re told that’s exactly what she did.

Because only an idiot would have not have just leaped at the chance to be closer to the Holy Land, the Ark of Covenant, God’s Chosen People and the opportunity to learn from the Torah.