As I read lesson six I thought a lot about what it must have been like to be a woman in the time of Joshua. Many stories in the Bible use the very lowly to help us understand that God cares for all–even us. Rahab would certainly have been considered someone to be avoided at best and most likely to be stoned by the Israelites, yet she has a faith in God that may even surpass the spies she is admitting to her home. Where does Rahab’s knowledge of God come from? She is an outcast in her own society not known by the leaders of the Israelites, yet she says, “for the Lord your God is he who is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” I believe this knowledge had to come directly from God, He chose her to fullfil the covenant He had with His people, and by doing so had His people create a covenant with her. She became a follower, one of them, and was able to include her entire family. This story makes me hopeful that God has an openness to all, even those we may disagree with or look down upon. It teaches me not to judge but to be open to seeing and hearing of God’s love from those I would least expect to carry that message.
The second story discussed in this lesson, the story of Gibeonites had a very interesting twist. In a sense deceipt is rewarded. This is a perplexing message. My first reaction was that basing an oath upon your relationship with God is more binding and important than God’s original orders. God was backing the promise so it had to be kept even though it had been gotten through lying and cunning. I would have liked the story better if the Gibeonites had found God, but it seems that they never did, they were happy to be alive and willing to serve the Israelites to remain so. What was the lesson I learned? Doing something in the name of God has to be fullfiled.
