For you must survive, even though you feel like you are dying
Written By: Debra Hearn Jones
Have you ever gone through an ultimate betrayal, caused by someone you love unconditionally, that when you discover their betrayal, the shock catches you totally off guard, and your body’s response feels as though it reacted separately from your soul? Is it possible that you felt like you were split in two? Your body begins to convulse, wracked with uncontrollable sobs, and the pain, so piercing, that it burrows out from deep within your soul, putting you in survivor mode? Did you ever wonder, why does my body go into survivor mode? I will tell you why…….. “For you must survive, even though you feel like you are dying.”
Survive you say…? Why would I want to survive? My world has fallen apart; my pain is so deep I cannot even function. I feel like I am losing my mind, and I cannot even feel normal. I feel rejected, unloved and unworthy. How could someone I love, hurt me so deeply, and knowingly do it? Maybe it is time you heard the story of a young girl, named Rahab who not only survived, she overcame, and had a “Beautiful” life. This is her story.
The Book of Joshua tells the story of a young beautiful woman, named Rahab, who lived in the city of Jericho. Rahab loved her daddy very much. Her daddy was the one man she loved and trusted the most. Unknown to Rahab, the family was going through very harsh times, while she daydreamed, wondering who her father would give her hand in marriage too, she looked forward to the days of being a mother and raising her own family. On the day, she thought she was going to find out who her future husband would be, her daddy instead told her, he had no choice, but to sell her, into the oldest profession known to man; prostitution. In her father’s eyes, Rahab was the key link to the family’s survival.
I have often wondered, how Rahab, barely a teenager, could have even been prepared for what was ahead in this oldest of professions. How this child must have suffered from heartache, rejection, and feeling of being lost and alone. I can only imagine the strain it put on her relationships with her family. It is clear she did not like her circumstances, yet it was the hand she had been dealt. So Rahab, instead of falling apart, quickly began to do things her way. Rahab makes the best of her situation, by using her sharp mind to use her profession to advance herself and buy into a successful thriving inn. Because she lived near the wall of Jericho, there were many times she would hear the stories of the Hebrews “God” by the travelers who were passing through Jericho. Rahab had long ago denounced her peoples false God, she was intrigued with the Hebrew “God”, who had parted the sea for his people to escape from the Pharaoh. The Hebrews reputation preceded them, with rumors of war, and countless victories, cities fell at their feet. Their God was a mighty God. Then Rahab learned that he was a God who had great concern for his people. The Hebrews “God” was compassionate to his people, having forgiven them countless times, and then coming to rescue them, and bring them out of captivity. Something stirred in Rahab, in her soul, what would it feel like to have someone concerned about her that might care for her or even come to her rescue from the plight she had been dealt in life. Rahab also learned that the Hebrews did not tolerate, harlots, that they actually stoned them to death. Even knowing this Rahab choose to love God and began to pray for him.
Would God love her, would he be concerned for her, despite the horrible life she had a lead, could he find compassion enough to forgive her, and come rescue her from a life of pure hell. When Rahab began to pray to God, she knew there was a good chance of rejection once more in her life, Rahab was not Hebrew, she had committed horrible sins, yet she prayed on faith and walked on faith that God would hear her cries. The one thing I noticed about Rahab is that she is persistent in all matters. She does not take “NO” for an answer. Very soon an opportunity presented itself to Rahab that was her chance, to be heard by God through the Hebrews. When Joshua, sent two spies to Jericho, to search out the city, the King discovered they were there and began to search for them, to put them to death. Rahab on learning this then changed her own life, if discovered, and provided the two spies with a hiding place on the rooftop of her inn. Rahab made the spies vow, and swear unto her by the Lord, that because she showed them kindness, that in return kindness would be shown back to her fathers’ house, giving her a true token. The spies promised, our lives for yours, and then Rahab helped them to escape and return to Joshua with a full report. Later when the walls of Jericho fell, Rahab and her whole family were saved, because Rahab looked past her circumstances, and believed God would deliver her and her family. The story does not stop here. Rahab did not just survive; her life and all her family’s lives were spared death and destruction, and Rahab overcame and received deliverance.
After Jericho fell, Rahab, resettled into Israel, and then later married Salmon, an aristocrat at the time. Rahab then bore Boaz, a faithful man of God. If you go to Matthew Chapter 1:5, and you follow the genealogy, you will discover that Rahab by walking on faith had spiritual and physical deliverance and when she married into the Judah tribe, she became an ancestor in the lineage of Jesus. What a profound story this is, a woman sold into prostitution, rejected by her family, faced death to hide two spies, who she knew was in Joshua army, who lead by the most high God, the God of heaven and earth, and Rahab’s life and all her families lives were spared, turning her life over to God and through his mercy, she was restored, married into the Lord’s family, and raised a Godly son, Boaz who later married Ruth.
So no matter what your past, there is a merciful and loving God who does indeed love you, who is concerned for you, who has compassion, and will come and rescue you.
If you are looking back on your past and wanting a new future, a restored life, follow the command of Act 2:38:
“38Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.
What a wonderful and merciful God we serve. A God of Second Chances, who will take a harlot, with a darkened past, transform her, into a great saint of faith, and put her in the direct lineage of Jesus.
