In the secular world I’ve known a few men who have married their call girls. In my education provider we even had a whole group of working women who had been brought to Australia as marriage partners for professional men.
But I want you to look at Rahab. She was abandoned on every level. She was young and poor: she lived in a hole in the wall at Jericho that was called her house. She made her own linen cloth for her clothing. She had a father, mother and brothers. Why all these men weren’t providing for Rahab, I can only guess, but in Rahab's days, women were viewed as property and it was normal for women to be bought and sold for sex.
And then we have Rahab rescued and taken into the Israelite fold. She is no longer having to work as a scarlet woman to eke out a meagre existence, but what would be the prevailing attitude in Israel to this reformed Canaanite harlot?
For one, the Canaanites were on the search and destroy list for Israel. Prostitution was forbidden in the Law of Moses but any lapses into the practice inevitably were dealt with swiftly and sharply. (Remember Tamar whose father in law wanted to burn her?)
But Rahab survived because of her faith and the practical manifestation of her faith in the God of Israel when she risked her life to protect the 2 Israelite spies in her city. But marriage? Would any decent Law-of-Moses-abiding Israelite man want her to be his wife?
Well, a godly man did come along. I know he was godly because his offspring were all godly and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
If you have a past and despair of ever being married, or if you wonder if there really is a godly man out there for you, remember Rahab! Against every odd God provided a good man for her. Put your worries into the hand of our Saviour and He will provide. He isn’t titled Yahweh Yireh (The Lord Will Provide) in vain (Genesis 22:14).
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