This morning, we come to the last two personal examples of faith in our long study of the Hall of Faith. We do have one more sermon in this series, as next week we will consider the last part of Hebrews 11. But, it’s interesting that the writer of Hebrews chooses to end his list of examples of faith with the two stories we have before us today. These two stories call us to ask an important question of our relationship with God: what do you believe is the basis for your relationship with God? Is your relationship based on what you can bring to the table – your abilities, talents, victories, successes? Is it based on your goodness? Are you thinking, like so many, that when the judgment day comes, you’ll be accepted because you’ve lived a moral life, or because you’ve done great things in the name of the Lord? I hate to burst your bubble, but a relationship with God that is built on your perceived worth is no relationship at all. Rather, if you are to have a right relationship with God, it must be built on faith, and faith believes that God can do the impossible. To see that, let’s read Heb. 11:30-31. From this passage, I want you to understand two points – faith believes that God can secure the impossible victory and save the impossible sinner.
First, in verse 30 we see that faith believes in God’s ability to secure the impossible victory. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the famous story of the Israelite victory over the great city of Jericho, from Joshua 6. Remember, in that story, that Israel has been wondering in the wilderness for 40 years just so an entire generation of faithless Israelites could die off. Now, with the new generation, and Joshua in charge, God calls them to finally take the promised land. The Israelites march up to the Jordan river, and as the Levites put their feet in the water to cross, the river is dammed up so that they cross on dry ground. As they march on, they come to the impenetrable fortress of Jericho. The city of Jericho is thought to be the oldest city in the world. In this time, it was a great military and political force. The city itself was protected by two walls (an inner and outer wall). For Israel to come against such a formidable enemy right at the start of their conquest would be like some Division 2 school having the University of Alabama for the first game of the season. Israel had no organized military. They had no lines of supply or base of operation. But, they had something that Jericho didn’t – the Creator God. Yet, the story grows more impossible as Joshua details the strategy for Israel’s victory. The strategy is not to have the priests come out and offer a prayer of blessing before the mighty men of battle march away to take the city. It isn’t a plan, given directly by God, to build great siege instruments that will enable the soldiers to conquer the walls. No, the strategy is to have the Levites march with the ark of the covenant at the front of a processional. The soldiers are to follow behind them with trumpets, and at an appointed time each day, for seven days, they are to shout and blow the trumpets. Then, on the seventh day, they are to go through this embarrassing ritual seven times, all in eyeshot of the city. In hearing this plan, I’m sure many were dismayed. Some may have thought of God more like a mascot than a warrior. This is the way many today view God. God is my co-pilot. Me and Jesus have got this. We can make the mistake of thinking that God is useful as a source of power or strength or encouragement or motivation, but we fail to trust him with the victory – that’s our job.
Yet God would have the victory and the glory, or nothing at all. You see, the conquest of Canaan was not a land grab or a resettlement for the Israelites. It was God taking back his land. In the conquests of Israel, God was laying claim over lands that were once ruled by false gods. The march of the ark of the covenant around the walls of this greatest of pagan cities was a claim of possession by Israel’s God. Jehovah was saying, “Mine!” So, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the Israelites trusted in God, regardless of the strangeness of it all, because they believed that their God would win the impossible victory for them.
Second, in verse 31 we find that faith believes that God saves the impossible sinner. Central to the story of Israel’s victory over Jericho is an unexpected heroine named Rahab. In Josh. 2 we read the story of how Rahab helped the spies from Israel who came to scout out the defenses of the city. Rahab is an unexpected heroine for two reasons. First of all, she is a citizen of Jericho, and therefore, an enemy of the people of God. And yet, in Josh. 2:9, she expresses a unique faith in the God of Israel by saying, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and the fear of you has fallen upon us.” This simple faith led to a promise by the spies that when the city was taken, they would spare her family. She is also an unexpected heroine for her profession. The writer points out that she is a prostitute. Her profession is such an inconvenient truth that later Rabbis, writing commentaries on the book of Joshua, would suggest that the word for prostitute could mean “hostess”. But, John Calvin points out that everywhere the word is used in the OT, it means “prostitute”, and this is exactly how the writer of Hebrews takes it. She is not just an enemy of God because she is a pagan. She is also a sinner – and not just any sinner, but the most carnal of sinners. Yet, this greatest sinner expresses simple faith, and on that faith, she and her family are saved. Friend, see in the example of Rahab that there is no sin too great, no place to far, no life too tarnished, that God cannot save! Brothers and sisters, know that nothing in your past, no black stain of sin, can keep you from being used of God. For, not only was Rahab used by God to bring victory to Israel, but through her, an even greater work was done. In Matt. 1, the Apostle begins his Gospel by giving us a genealogy of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. In that genealogy, we recognize many of the great men of faith – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Boaz, David. But, right in the middle of all of those great men of faith, in verse 5, it says, “and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab.” Here, in the lineage of the Son of God who would be the blameless sacrifice for the sins of the world, we find the prostitute, Rahab. Sinner, it is impossible to bring down a wall with trumpets and shouts, but God did it. It is impossible to bring a pagan prostitute into the chosen people of God, but God did it. It is impossible to make a pure, blameless second Adam from such a woman, but God did it. It is impossible to save any sinner who is so separated from God, but God can do it in you! Turn, repent of your sins, and trust in the sacrifice of Christ, and you will be saved by the God who does the impossible!
Brothers and sisters, the victories we win for the Lord are not done with our ingenuity and the Lord’s help – they are done by the Lord and for the Lord. So often now, the church tries to win the lost by its own power. We develop strategies, study numbers, devise programs, hoping that something we do will be attractive to the lost. All the while, we neglect prayer, worship, fellowship, and discipleship – the basic things that God has given us to do. These basic things seem foolish, useless, like marching around a wall. Yet, it is in prayer, preaching and teaching, and faithful worship that God has said he will work. When I came to Antioch, I committed to the Lord that I would not seek success in ministry through programs or plans, but through prayer and preaching. Now, to some, that might seem like, as a church, we just aren’t doing enough. We aren’t “active” like some other churches are. We don’t have all the exciting programs, new music, and fancy technology. Of course, there is nothing wrong with any of that, in and of itself, but often, like Israel with their chariots and horses and mighty soldiers, we can begin to think that those things give us the victory. And, if we do win people to the Lord, we might make the mistake of thinking, “Well, they came because of this program or that style of music.”
My chief desire in my ministry is that I might glorify God and that you might see his glory. God gets the glory when we are weak. He gets the glory through acts that the world might think are foolish. He gets the glory when a church prays, and people are made well. He gets the glory when a church is faithful to discipleship and new believers come to the Lord. He gets the glory when the church faithfully assembles, week after week, even when the society around them rejects God in every way. This is our march around the wall, so may we do it diligently and wait for the victory.
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