Tuesday, August 21, 2007

By Faith... Or Not? Israel's Exodus and Conquest, Part 4 of 41

TEXT: "Brothers [and sisters], think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him" (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

IDEA: God chooses His notables from the most unlikely places.

PURPOSE: To help listeners recognize that God chooses people on the basis of whom they trust rather than on the basis of who they are.

Read 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 again.

What difference would it make if the text said that those people chose Him?

I. The only woman featured in Hebrews 11 is Rahab who, in two of the three references in the New Testament, is called a prostitute.

Do you think the texts say that of her to demean her?

If the past is forgotten, then why is Rahab often associated with an ugly past?

II. God often wants us to know that the kind of people he favors are often those that the society despises.

She is described as a prostitute.

Yet Rahab the prostitute became the great-great grandmother of King David and ultimately was in the lineage of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5).

Why would Matthew include four women in his genealogy (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba) and three of them have unsavory pasts? Particularly, why would he include Rahab?

None of the people in Jesus’ genealogy were there because they were pious and good. All of them were sinners. Matthew wants us to know that out of the brokenness of the human condition he brings about redemption.

He did that for Rahab and he does that for us.