By: Rev. Arnel Tan
“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.”
Joshua 2:11 NLT
The story of Rahab is a story of redemption and grace. The focus of which is her remarkable faith in a God that she barely knew. Her information about God was not as much as the Israelites. All her life she had been worshipping the false god of Jericho. Yet, when she heard about the God of Israel, she responded in fear and faith. It was her faith in God that counted her as righteous. It was her faith in God that gave her a space in the hall of faith; also, it was her faith that put her name in the genealogy of the Savior!
Many readers find the story of Rahab as an excuse for lying… using this text as a defense that lies are allowable. This should not be so! White lies and alibis are not pleasing to the Lord. Rahab lived a life of falsehood and by nature, like all of us, a liar and a sinner. Lying to her was so natural… faith in God was not. Her faith in God did not come naturally as she would lie or lie with many men. God must first introduce Himself so she can respond in faith. After she responded to God in faith, though the tendency to lie was still there, her LIFESTYLE of lying ended when she placed her faith in God.
How do you deal with life? Is lying a routine? Is lying, to men, treated as no big deal? Lies need more lies to stand. Paul reminded the church in Ephesus that lying must stop (Eph.4:25) because we are now in the truth. Lying is still a big deal with God. He wants us to repent from this instead of being defensive. God also desires that we learn to walk by faith and live in love and truth. How then can we be victorious over our lying tendencies? In faith, let us draw close to the TRUTH so the truth can influence us to live by the truth.
Without faith we continue to live in a lie. By faith in Christ we now say goodbye to our former lifestyle of lying. When we lie, we find it so disturbing that we don’t delay repentance. The moment we lie, we volunteer ourselves to be imprisoned by it. When we finally decide to trust God… to live in truth, we experience a new sense of liberty inside. In some cases many people, though in prison, choose to tell the truth… testifying to a new sense of freedom and release felt inside. Many continue to live a lifestyle of lying to stay out of prison but are actually inside a virtual prison of guilt. Faith led to Rahab’s freedom and forgiveness… not a lie.
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