Rahab looked at the young man who just left her bed. He was just like the rest of them; young with the heat in his loins. He said his name was Cornelius.

Cornelius.

After a while their names all began to run together. She could care less.

She smiled at him as he dropped the gold coins into her hands.

She felt like shaming him so she said “how is your wife sir? Do you think she would mind you staying for another round?”

Cornelius turned beet red.

They always treated her as dirt. Women would see her in the market and sneer. Rahab the harlot. But their husbands begged to grace her bed each night.

She rang the bell and a huge set man appeared.

“Manu escort him out please”.

She was tired. Sometimes she wished for a new beginning. She didn’t even know who she was anymore. She wanted to run away, fade away and never look back. But she had a reputation as the richest woman in Jericho, however ugly that reputation may look.

Everyone knew her as Rahab the harlot. Even the king knew her abode. She put up a bold face in public but in times like this after seeing men like Cornelius ten times in a row, she wondered if this was all there was to life.

Her family was at peace with what she was doing. Her father’s trade in gold had multiplied in the last 5 years and her mother had time to sit in the harem with other women and discuss sweet nothings.

She had not the pleasure of even one woman who loved her company.

She was lonely and tired.

She wished that she could start over but where could she go?

She had heard about the Israelites with a God who could part the sea? Could a new life be possible in their camp?

It was just a passing thought and as soon as it came she squashed it.

No one would give her a new start.

She rang the bell again.

“Manu, how many are left for tonight?”

She tried to only take a few during the long weekend but today had been busy because all Jericho had heard about their impending doom and the men wanted to grasp at their last chance at pleasure.

“Three men are left Rahab and they say that they are together”.

She smiled. At least she could do one work at once and be done for today.

“Send them in”.

As soon as the men came in she felt a strange sensation in the air.

“You are not from Jericho are you?”

Salmon looked at the woman sitting in front of him. She was beautiful but she would have been stoned a long time ago for what she was doing.

He debated in his heart whether to lie or not. He looked at Caius and shook his head.

“No, we are not. We are Israelites”.

Rahab swallowed in fear and in hope. Could this be my opening?

And she contemplated on what to do, she heard a loud rap on the door.

“Men from the king!” Manu shouted.

“Men from the king”.

Whenever she had guests from the king, the ordinary men always knew to vacate their time for them.

She looked at the men and hurried them over to the top of her roof. She covered them with flax and told them to stay hidden.

“Stay here. I will be back for you”.

She hurried back to her room and say Claudius, one of her well-paying customers. She rubbed his chest but he took her hands off him.

“Bring out the men who have come into your house, for they have come here to spy out the whole land.”

Rahab thought fast and replied:

“Yes oh Claudius, the men were here earlier, but I didn’t know where they were from. They left the town at dusk, as the gates were about to close. I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them.”

As soon as Claudius heard that, he didn’t spare a second look at her. He hurried away. She watched from her window as the town’s gates were shut.

Rahab laid down for a minute trying to form a plan.

Was this God’s saving grace to her?

Why today when she was so tired of this life?

Could this a chance for her?

Suddenly she had a thought!

She would save those men but she would require something of them. It was just like her business.
One for the other.

Rahab went up to the roof to talk to the spies.

“I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed.
No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.

“Now swear to me by the Lord that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.”

Rahab held her breath in fear as she waited for their reply.

Salmon thought about this very well. He knew that they were bound by any oath they made and God would uphold it.

“We offer our own lives as a guarantee for your safety,” the men agreed. “If you don’t betray us, we will keep our promise and be kind to you when the Lord gives us the land.”

She told them how to get down from her house and escape.

Before Salmon left he turned back to her.

“We will be bound by the oath we have taken only if you follow these instructions. When we come into the land, you must leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window through which you let us down. And all your family members—your father, mother, brothers, and all your relatives—must be here inside the house. If they go out into the street and are killed, it will not be our fault. But if anyone lays a hand on people inside this house, we will accept the responsibility for their death. If you betray us, however, we are not bound by this oath in any way.”

Rahab thought about it. She had a scarlet dress she used for games. She could use that.

“I accept your terms,” she replied. And she sent them on their way, leaving the scarlet rope hanging from the window.

*****
Three years later…

****
Rahab snuggled deeper into her husband’s arms.
She thought about how she had gotten here.

Salmon was such a gift. One she didn’t deserve. She didn’t know how this God who ruled the heavens and earth could have looked upon her with mercy but He did.

Someone knocked on the door.

“I am looking for Rahab the harlot”.

Salmon winced at the words but she smiled at him.

She wasn’t ashamed, she was grateful and that wasn’t her name anymore. Anytime she heard “Rahab the harlot, she said thank you to God.

It had been tough to be accepted among the Israelites but God had given her Salmon.

Salmon her gift. Not earned or deserved. But given. Freely. Given. Freely.

***
The people of Jericho had been no match for the Israelites three years ago but the spies had kept their word.

She had sworn over allegiance to their God and was determined never to take it back.

She had felt empty without her work for a while but Salmon read to her from the scrolls what Adam called his wife the first time he saw her.

“At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”

Salmon called her the one sent to help him. Sent to add beauty to the earth. The one without whom something was missing from the earth.

Salmon called her beautiful. His eyes spoke volumes when he looked at her but sometimes that wasn’t enough.

She cried to God one morning after they had made love and she felt empty still.

“Lord whats happening? How can I be filled?”

And she heard the voice of the wind giving her His replies:

“You are mine. Called to be a helper. You help the universe spill forth that which I have placed in it. A nurturer. You are made with a womb. You make lives. You are mine”.

She heard Him again:

“Reach out your scarlet thread to me and hold on tight. Dig in deep. In your hold to me is where you find yourself”.

Rahab smiled.
She wasn’t Rahab the harlot anymore.

She was Rahab, the One who was saved by the scarlet cord.

 

Study questions and Insights:

Read Joshua Chapter 2

1: Today is International women’s day.

What does being a woman mean to you?

Most women are confused.

Am I my face?

Am I my talents?

Am I my gifts?

Am I my husband?

I am bold, I walk with confidence in what I do but in the quiet moments I am not so sure of who I am.

The identity of a woman must be held in place before anything additional can stand.

Who am I?

How can I know me?

We can only know us by knowing Him.

No amount of motivation can get us to rise up into our place as women.

We must go back to the place in His heart.

The place where the scarlet thread holds us to His heart.

The place where HIS blood bounds us to His heart.

Where we are His daughters. Where we are forgiven, secure and safe.

The place where we are His bride.

If we can be secure in Him. We can be secure in us and we can be secure in the world.

We are His women first of all before we are the world’s.

Whose are you?

****
Rahab found herself in Him and that became the turning point.
Today can be yours.

Pray:
Jesus I come to you today. I hold onto your blood. Cleanse me. Wash me. Remake and remold me in you.
Wash me anew and clean. Show me who I am in you. I want my feet to be secure in you. I want to know what you call me. I want to know the name by which I am known in you. For when I find you, I find me.

****
We know that man women are broken and even as today is celebration of the woman, most are broken, hurt, in pain and in need of healing.

Please Email us at 4thewomenatthewell@gmail.com
We would love to help in any way we can.

YOU ARE HIS.

 

 

JOIN OUR NEXT PRAYER MEET:

 

8 hours tongues March prayer session!! IF YOU KNOW THAT YOU NEED STRENGTH AND NEED TO HIT A RESET BUTTON THEN YOU SHOULDN’T MISS IT.

SATURDAY MARCH 17TH 2018

VENUE:

The prayer room, 11th floor, 3 Keystone Bank Crescent Off Adeyemo Alakija Street Lagos.

Time: 8am-4pm

 

AND WE SHALL STREAM (GOD WILLING) FOR EVERY LADY WHOSE HEART HAS BEEN CRYING OUT FOR STRENGTH!

Posted on: March 8, 2018, by : 4thewomenatthewell@gmail.com