Would You Welcome Spies? (Rahab)
Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Shediac · July 19, 2026 · Heroes of the Faith series
Jeremy MacDonald looks at Rahab's story in Joshua 2 and Hebrews 11, showing how she welcomed the spies with only a little knowledge of God. Faith is confidence in God that leads to action, and God rewards those who seek Him.
More from Jeremy MacDonald · The Heroes of the Faith series
Topics: Faith, Mission & Outreach, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] Well, my name is Jeremy. I'm so glad to be here, and I'm wondering if there are some kids in the room, because you've been really, really quiet, and I just need you to be loud for a second, because I'm nervous you're not here. Are there any kids? Can I hear you? Parents, what have you done? You've kept them so quiet. It's incredible. One more time. Let's hear it for the kids. One, two, three kids. All right. Whatever you're doing, you got to tell me afterwards, because I have a 10, 8, and 6-year-old, and they would not be this quiet. So this is wonderful. My question, though, for the kids, and maybe for the adults as well, is, hey, have you ever felt like you didn't belong? Did you ever end up in a situation where you felt like, ooh, I'm not supposed to be here? Because for me, it was when I was a kid. I've had a lot throughout my life, but when I was 6 years old, I had a moment that felt really, really, really lonely.
[0:49] I got put into skating lessons. Now, how many people here know how to skate? I don't like you. No, I'm judging. I'm prejudging. Here's why, though. Legitimately, so my mom, I love my mom. She's wonderful. We hung out with her last night. She was a good mom, but she put me in skating lessons at 6 years old, which makes sense, because we're here. I grew up in Moncton, and so skating lessons are great, but there's two types of skating lessons when you're starting out as a 6-year -old. There's beginner session 1, and then there's beginner session 2. Now, I did not know how to skate. I needed to be in 1, and she put me in 2. This is what happened. They put all the kids together. Everybody gets their skates on. I'm nervous, because I'm really, really introverted. I'm really, really scared.
[1:34] I don't like talking to people. I'm really quiet, and so I get out there, and they put all the kids on the ice, and they say, all right, kids, line up over here. All the kids go over here, and I go, and I get there, and they say, all right, on your mark, get set. You're going to go to the other end of the rink. One, two, three, go. All the kids go, and I go, and they say, all the kids on the other end, I don't go, and I'm like, whoa, and I'm watching these kids go, and I'm like, okay. And then they say, and this is the part that was traumatic, and this is the part that I haven't yet figured out in my counseling, but what they said was, we're going to make pizzas. Now, I like pizza, and then they said, we're also going to make cookies, and I like cookies. But how many people know that you cook those things at different temperatures, and we weren't actually making food.
[2:23] We were making them in giant circles on the ice. How many people have done giant circles on the ice? You guys, I'm just... Okay, we'll work it out later. But they say, we're going to make circles, and on this end, all the kids start making circles, and they start doing their thing. And I start making a circle, and I go, and hit the ground, or hit the ice. And I'm lying there as a six-year-old on the ice, and I'm watching all of these other kids that I didn't know skate away. And I look up with tears at my mom's eyes, and I'm thinking, this is going to be a great sermon illustration in 32 years. It's going to tell a story, but in this moment, it's really sad. Because in that moment, I felt so much like I didn't belong. And in those moments in your life, when you feel kind of alone, it's hard to know, man, what are you supposed to do in those moments?
[3:08] What do you do with that feeling? What do you do when you look around and it feels like, I'm just here, and everybody else is going in a different direction. Well, the truth is, is that whether you're six years old in here, or you're 36, or you're 86 years old, we have those moments. And when we have those moments, my suggestion, no surprise, is that we might be able to look at the examples that we actually find in the scriptures, that we find Bible stories of people's lives lived in such a way that even in the midst of some of the most difficult and awful circumstances, when they felt like they didn't belong, they took an action, or they took a step, or they did something. And this morning, I want to tell you, in particular, about somebody named Rahab.
[3:54] Now, Rahab's story is a bit of a wild one, actually. Rahab, she lived in a town called Jericho many, many, many, many, many, many years ago. And while you can go to Jericho today, the Jericho back then was quite a bit different. In Jericho back then, the people were not good people. And if you're a kid and you pay attention to the rules of your teachers and your parents, and you try to do the right thing, that's a great thing. In those days, they were doing the opposite. The people around Rahab were living in a way that would be extremely awful, evil, and very, very sinful. And Rahab, to be honest, even in her story, she lived her life in such a way that had lots of things. I'm sure she regretted it. But at some point in her story, she started to hear the story of the one true God.
[4:43] In fact, I think she probably logged onto Netflix and she saw the new Moses epic, if you watch the new Moses story. And it's like, oh my goodness, what is happening in this? God is doing something wild and crazy. And although she obviously didn't have Netflix at the time, she did hear that story about Moses. She's getting the word of this one true God that was rescuing his people and bringing them out and across dry land. And as she hears the stories of this God, she starts to realize, even though in her world that probably felt very, very lonely, that her next step should be something that would be honoring and good towards that God. And so two people show up in her city. And they're part of the group that serve that one true God, the one that we've been singing about here this morning.
[5:29] And the people that show up, she knows, you're with that group. You're with that group that walked across dry land, that the Red Sea was parted, that your God is the true God. And she knew her whole town, all the people around her did not like these two people. They were very much against those two people and they were trying to hunt them down. And she knew that even though everybody around her was against this one true God, she could be somebody that said, I think I should actually pay attention and follow after this one true God. So Rahab's story, she takes these spies in and she says, listen, come into my place. You're going to be safe here because if you're safe here, then you can serve and do what your God has asked you to do. And it was, I'm sure with much challenge or much danger for her and her personal safety.
[6:15] But these people that worship God, they came in and they said, yeah, actually your city, it's going to get destroyed. But if you want to serve the one true God, we can make sure that you're safe. And if you want to come with us and serve the one true God and anybody else that will join with you, make sure that they know to gather together because your faith in this one true God will make a difference and your faith can lead you to do the right thing. Now, this is wild and crazy because in those days, the people that serve this God, they were called Israelites. And for the most part, we kind of assume, oh, they all belong to this one nation. But there's wonderful examples where people noticed and knew, oh, that God, that's the God that I've been thinking about. That's the God that I should serve. And for Rahab, that was the God that she took a step towards that day without all the information.
[7:05] She didn't know all the stories. She couldn't tell everything that happened with Noah or she didn't know about Adam and Eve. All she knew was that she had enough to point in the direction of this God. And hundreds of years later, people would write about her faith. And this is what they would say. And this summer, we were walking through a particular part of the New Testament. It's called Hebrews. And it highlights the story of the faith of all sorts of different people that we have in our Christian scriptures. And in Hebrews 11, it says this specifically about Rahab. By faith, Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed. In fact, she was able to leave and to travel then on with these Israelites. And it was this incredible act of faith.
[7:51] In fact, one of the people that writes about this particular passage, she's a commentator named Amy. She says that Rahab's daring reception and protection of the spies is an act of faith in response to what she had heard about the God of Israel. There's lots she didn't know, but she knew enough to take a specific action. And if you've ever wondered what faith is all about, like we talk about like, hey, do you have faith? I've got faith. Keep the faith. Sometimes they're songs. We're not going to sing them. I'm not going to sing them. But the point of faith is that we can actually understand the nature of when we talk about faith, what is actually going on here? What does it mean to have faith? And faith is this. Faith is confidence that God, the God that we are talking about, singing about that's in the scriptures, that God is and will do what he has promised to do.
[8:45] It's having confidence in that. And even without all the information or knowing all the answers, what you do know can lead you to have confidence that God is who he says he is. And so for Rahab, and Amy would write this specifically about her. She says, faith in the God of Israel knows no boundaries, including ethnicity or gender or previous career. And honestly, if you do a deeper dive on Rahab's previous career, it's not a good one. And yet for her, hearing about this great God, she had what she needed to put her faith and trust in him. And anyone can trust in God and out of that trust act, and this is actually the real important part, act faithfully.
[9:30] Because when you have faith in God, it leads you to do something, hopefully, that your faith, if it wells up and you've got enough confidence that there is actually a God of the universe. He knows my story. He knows who I am. He knows what I'm going through, and he knows the future, that if that God is actually real, then I can act in a particular way. And the question that we should always ask is, what do we do with this faith? What do we do if there's this kind of faith in your heart or my heart, if it starts to well up? And the fascinating thing is we get all sorts of good examples and good kind of pushes about what to do with this faith. In fact, the brother of Jesus, his name is James, and this is always a little bit wild. Does anybody actually have a brother? I have a brother. I was talking about him earlier with somebody.
[10:16] Does anybody have a brother? Anybody got brothers here? We've got some brothers here. Okay, good, good, good. Not that we've got brothers here. You guys have brothers. And so the point is, how much would your brother need to do to convince you that he was like the Messiah? Do you know what I mean? A lot. You saw him growing up. He put his peas on your plate, and you had to eat them. He maybe tattled on you. And I don't know what it was like for Jesus growing up, but I'm guessing that for his brothers, it was a lot to realize later on that he was walking around and doing these miracles. And Jesus had this brother. His name is James. And legitimately, we don't have examples of James following after his brother while Jesus was walking around the earth doing the miracles.
[11:03] There were people following Jesus, but it seems like perhaps his brother James was like, I don't know. Like the fish in the loaves seems cool, but I mean, it might just be like he likes fish. Like he grew up eating. He might've just kind of kept some extra on his back pocket. Like he was skeptical as the bottom line. And it wasn't until the resurrection that the brother of Jesus is like, oh, oh, yeah, that is actually the Messiah. Yeah, this guy that I grew up with, my brother, he is indeed my Lord and my Savior. He puts his trust. And because of that confidence in Jesus, he speaks specifically about what you do with faith. And this is what he says. And this is so fascinating. It's one of my favorite parts of the Bible. James, the brother of Jesus says, you say you have faith for you believe that there is one God, good for you.
[11:50] Even the demons believe this. It's a bit of a shocker because if you're going to take a little bit of like a survey of Canadians, you go across the country, ask people like, hey, do you believe in God? And like most people are going to say, yeah, absolutely. And probably even in this room, most of us would say, no matter where you're at in your faith journey, yeah, I believe there's a God out there. I believe there's a God somewhere. And that's a good thing. We don't want to badmouth that, although James kind of does in this moment. But like, I'll leave that to James. It's great. And you're here in a church. Wow, this is incredible. But what James would say is that there's another step. That belief actually has to lead to something. That your confidence in God, that faith that he even exists, has to spark something different, something more, something like an action.
[12:39] And what James says, and he goes on, he says, so you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone, not just by our belief. And then this is the craziest thing because this is 102 years later. He actually uses the example of Rahab. He says, Rahab is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers. She didn't know everything. She didn't have everything all sorted out. But she knew enough about God that she could put her trust in him. And then she could take a step in right action towards him. And then her story is crazy. So she ends up showing up in the genealogy of Jesus, which I know not everybody is excited about genealogies. My grandparents are really into it these days, which is kind of fun.
[13:25] I'll care a little bit more about my genealogy in about 10 years. But right now, genealogies are like, for some people, like what's happening with this? And the fascinating thing about Jesus's genealogy is it highlights in a culture, this is important, in a culture that would have, we would have thought, preferenced men, preferenced people of authority or power, that if you were to tell your genealogy story, you would want to give a throwback to all of like these famous people that were in your backstory. In Jesus's genealogy, this is what we read. We say that Salmon, funny name, was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. This lady that wasn't even in the Israelite community becomes a central figure in the genealogy of Jesus.
[14:16] She is the great, great, I should have done this before, grandmother, great, great grandmother of King David, the one that's like David and Goliath, the one that is like a man after God's honor, this incredible story of this woman who took a step of faith and then becomes a central figure in our faith. So this summer, our ask, or our invitation to each and every one of you is to grab this book, this is the devotional, and throughout the summer, you could take the stories of the people who have experienced their faith and have lived out their faith and it could inspire your faith and my faith. I've got a picture of it so you know what it looks like, what you're looking for. If you want a free version, just like a PDF, it's off our website, you can go there. And the point is that it brings you back to the stories of how people truly, truly have lived out faith.
[15:06] And the writer of Hebrews kind of sums it all up in a way that maybe is helpful for you and it's been helpful for me. In Hebrews 11, verse 6, it says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. And he explains why. He says, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. That's the point. That's the heart. That's the invitation that God actually rewards those who earnestly seek him. Or put this way, that God rewards seekers, not settlers. That God rewards those who seek after him, not those who just settle in.
[15:52] And so for me in my journey, I'm 38 years old, I've been a Christian my whole life. And sometimes I joke, I came to Christ as a five-year-old and before that, man, I was a crazy four-year-old. I was hopped up on chocolate milk and just a terror. And then I came to Christ and my life got fixed. No, but my life has been a long time serving. And I know that's not everybody's story, but what I need you to know is that even though I've been following after Jesus for my entire life, my job each and every day is to do this exact same thing to seek after God. And that God looking at each and every one of us isn't looking for the person that knows the most. He's looking at the person that will seek him the most. And with whatever God has invited you into, even in these moments, that you can respond by seeking after him.
[16:38] He might reward in the same way that you saw somebody like Rahab who had hurtled just a little bit and took some steps towards this God and has been rewarded incredibly, incredibly much. God rewards seekers. Let us be a people of seeking this summer and not just settling on what we've known and experienced. And then for those of you that might be visiting or kind of guests or just checking things out, you should also know that title, our church here, title is a family of seekers. The beautiful thing that happens with Christian family is that if you've ever felt like you're alone or if you've ever felt like you're on the ice wondering why is everybody going in a different direction, the great news is that if you would be somebody that would seek after God, you can join a family right here that's doing exactly that, that we get united together because we want to be that kind of people, the kind of people that would seek God, and you're going to get to hear and see the incredible stories of so many people that have made that decision that we get a chance to baptize here really shortly.
[17:42] This beautiful story of how when you seek after God, he both rewards you and celebrates with you and gives you an incredible, incredible testimony of his goodness, and you will get a chance to hear those stories. And hopefully that inspires you that we have not just the story of Rahab to celebrate. We have not just the story of all the people in Hebrews 11, but that we have heroes of the faith sitting amongst us who with what they've discovered about God have sought after him and are wanting to make sure that we all know how deeply that's changed them and what that means for them. So I want to pray for you. I want to pray for us, and I want to invite us all to be moved by God this summer that we would seek after him and that he would see us.
[18:29] Heavenly Father, we're grateful that you have preserved these texts, that the work of the author of Hebrews is something that we can come back to and it can encourage us today. And so, God, I just pray. I pray for some people that are not quite sure they believe everything that we probably, you know, our church believes, but you know, they're here and they've wondered, maybe there is something to this after all. I pray that even in these moments, just like Rahab had just a glimpse of who you were in a couple of stories, and that was enough to spark her faith. Lord, I pray that for those people, that that would be enough to spark faith in them to take steps towards you. Lord, for those of us that have maybe followed after Jesus and followed after you for our entire lives, would this summer be one that we don't just settle?
[19:14] But would this be a summer where we renew our seeking after you and that we would tackle these next number of weeks with the kind of intensity that we should have, that we should discover, that we should be the same kind of excited people to seek after you as when we first chose to follow after you? And, Lord, for all of us, Lord, would we be encouraged by the stories of those among us who are making public their declaration of faith today, that they are seeking after you and that, Lord, would you please reward them greatly for it? And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.