Part of God's Story

"...his mother was Rahab." 

Matthew 1:5

In the genealogy of Jesus, there are very few females included. One of them is Rahab, found in the 2nd book of Joshua. She was a prostitute who protected the two men Joshua secretly sent from the Israelite camp to spy out the land they were going to invade. Even if she was part of an idolatrous people, the Amorites, God opened her eyes to see His plan. "I know the Lord has given you this land," she told the two spies. "The Lord Your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below." (Joshua 2:9-11) Rahab, the prostitute, married Salmon, one of the spies, and became the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth, another woman who made it into the genealogy of Jesus. Ruth also had some conviction that she should follow Naomi, her mother-in-law, and be part of Naomi's people. 

In Matthew 7:7, Jesus tells the crowd, "Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened." In the case of Rahab, she had obviously heard about God from the travelers she entertained in her house which was against the town wall. She knew He made a dry path through the Red Sea so the Jews could pass, how He helped the Jews conquer peoples and kings. With Ruth, she knew about God through her marriage to Naomi's son. Both Rahab and Ruth decided they wanted to be part of the story God was weaving. 

We can see that even if we come from a dung heap like Rahab the harlot, or if we're an ordinary woman with every day challenges, we can decide to be part of His story, and be part of His people.