Focal Passages: Joshua 2:1, 6, 8-15; 6:22-23
Was I ever stunned years ago, after some Bible study, when I realized that Rahab was the great great grandmother of King David. That shocked me because I realized at that point, she was in the lineage of Christ’s earthly mother. I had to stop and ponder – how could God use this line of people to bring Jesus into the world? How could He use a prostitute to be a part of the background of Jesus? My mind at that point was asking, “What was He thinking?”
Sadly, today we are living in a world that is becoming more blatantly hostile to the message of the Cross. The media, science, education, and the government in general do not encourage Christianity anymore. We are seeing in the news how other religions are given preference over Christian views. The world is basically daring us to stand true to what we believe. As Christians, we are being confronted with the truth of this being a sinful world.
We can look at this situation, and become like turtles – pulling ourselves back into our shells and hiding from the world – or, we can look at these challenges as an opportunity from God to respond and move the Kingdom forward.
Too often we as the church become complacent and take the stand that faith is simply a blind leap into the dark. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the firm foundation of those confident expectations that we have from God. It calls it evidence. Christianity is not based on an empty hop, but upon a firm foundation of fact.
So far, the media, scientists, historians or anyone else has yet to demonstrate that the truth of Christianity is false. Therefore, when faced with the challenges our world places before us, we should not hide, we should accept them readily with faith and be excited to see how God will come through. Going back to the question, “What was God thinking?,” I realized that He was showing vividly that this is a sinful world. We are all sinners – except for that great grace of God!