Wednesday, August 22, 2007

By Faith... Or Not? Israel's Exodus and Conquest, Part 5 of 41

TEXT: "By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace" (Hebrews 11:31).

IDEA: People’s testimonies often fascinate us because we see faith at work.

PURPOSE: To help listeners meet Rahab and see her as a woman with a bad past and a glorious future.

Today we are privileged to meet a woman who is well known to readers of the Bible, and she has agreed to talk with us about her life . . .

Questions for interview:

I’m a little embarrassed by the fact that even the people who wrote the Bible called you Rahab the prostitute. Do you feel insulted by that?

Tell us a bit about how you came to be involved with God’s people. Did you grow up as a Hebrew woman? How was it that you became a prostitute [I know that bothers you but in our culture it was often part of our religion – it was service to men, etc.]

How did you hear about Jehovah, given where you lived and what you were doing?

Did you accept that everyone heard about Israel’s God?

How did you get in contact with the Hebrews?

What were those men doing at your house?

Didn’t you feel a bit uptight about consorting with spies?

What was the deal you worked out with them?

How did you know you could trust them?

Did it work out?

Finally, it didn’t work out for the other people in Jericho.Were you the only one who was saved? Did your family believe as you believed?

What happened to you after all of that?