Who Are You In the Bible?
Who do you identify with when you hear the Old Testament stories? Are you a brave young David confronting Goliath or one of the cowering Israelite soldiers? Are you an upright Joseph or one of his jealous brothers? Do you recognize yourself among the sinful masses of the prediluvian world, or are you the stalwart Noah? When you read the story of Jericho, where do you see yourself? Are you Joshua, courageous and true? Maybe you’re marching with men of Israel circling the walled city. But do you ever imagine yourself hunkered down with your family behind the walls of Jericho whispering rumors about the God who parts seas and rivers. Have you waited in terror, surrounded by His army that has killed everyone in its path and is now poised to kill you?
Our Ephesians class is currently studying Ephesians Chapter 2. There we see the apostle Paul making a point the early church found difficult to accept: Jew and Gentile are one in Christ. Two millennia now stand between us and the animus that divided those groups. This makes it easier for us to identify as Israelites in the Old Testament stories. But in the days of the early church, it wasn’t so simple. The barriers between Jew and Gentile were as visible as the wall of Jerusalem and the fence that enclosed the Court of the Gentiles, preventing them from approaching too near the temple.
This is why Paul had to repeatedly call on early Christians to adjust their thinking. And this is why, to grasp the fullness of his meaning, we need to adjust ours. Paul is asking all of us, Jew and Gentile, to see ourselves first as sinners, guilty and condemned. In other words, to identify with Jericho:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all [note that Paul, a Jew, includes himself] once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:1-3).
Just as Jesus told the unbelieving Jews who claimed Abraham as their father, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires” (Jn 8:44), Paul says “we all,” Jew and Gentile, are born members of the same family. We are all “sons of disobedience” and “children of wrath.” These are hard words, but until we accept them we will never really grasp the rest of the story. We, like Jericho, were condemned to die,
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast”(Eph. 2:4-9)
Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho. Like everyone else, her heart melted when Israel’s army approached. Like them she knew she was doomed. But she also knew that this terrifying God had rescued a nation of slaves from Egypt, cared for them every step of the way, and was giving the land to them. No other god behaved like this. No other god cared. So when Israel’s spies knocked, she welcomed them. She placed her trust in God’s grace, believing it would be as immeasurable as His strength. She gathered her family and hung a scarlet thread from her window and waited. And, when judgment broke down the walls all around them, Rahab and her loved ones, in an Exodus all their own, marched out of Jericho and into the household of God.
“Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility . . . So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:11-14,19).
So today, as we listen to the story of Jericho, may Paul’s words to the Ephesians ring in our ears and remind us to see ourselves first, not as Israel, but as Rahab.
