Daily Devotional for Friday, September 16

Promise Fulfilled

Jericho was a tough situation for the Israelites moving into the Promised Land. While they had had some skirmishes, Jericho was to be their first walled and armed city. As we all likely know, the Lord provided victory at Jericho in a supernatural way. As part of this, the entire population of that city and everything in it was to be destroyed. The only exception to this was to be the harlot Rahab and her family. 

It might be easy to become confused here and think that Rahab was saved from destruction by the work she did in hiding the spies. This is not the full story. Rahab was saved by the faith she exercised, which compelled her to save the spies. We can know that because God has told us so in Hebrews 11:31 where we learn that it was, “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not” In the end, who died in Jericho? That same verse gives us that answer as well, it was “not with them that believed not.” Nothing has changed, those who believe are still granted eternal life with God, and those who believe not are doomed to eternity separated from Him. 

There is another important aspect to this story of Rahab. Rahab chose to believe in the one true God because she had heard the stories of how He had provided victories to the invading Israelites. She heard these stories and believed them. If she heard these stories, that means another thing; the people around her had heard exactly the same information, yet they chose to reject it. We have a similar choice today. What will we do?

JUST A THOUGHT: We do not get a free pass by claiming that others have not heard the gospel; we are accountable for what we have heard.

Wally Fry