Your Past Can Be Forgiven: Rahab

@carol_mcclain

Is your past unforgiveable?

Definitely not.

Consider Rahab, one of the ancestors of Jesus, mentioned in Matthew 1:5. She was a prostitute. No one chooses this lifestyle. In ancient Israel, women found few avenues of employment. If unmarried or widowed, they very often had to turn to prostitution in order to survive.

Who wants to have non-stop sex with strangers?

According to the Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women:

“Rahab, who begins as triply marginalized—Canaanite, woman, and prostitute—moves to the center as bearer of a divine message and herald of Israel in its new land. Even though later generations of readers have been squeamish about her occupation, preferring to think of her as an “innkeeper,” she is remembered in Jewish tradition as the great proselyte, as ancestress of kings and prophets, and, in the New Testament, as ancestress of Jesus (Matt 1:5).”

This is quite a feat for a person despised on so many levels. And she becomes the ancestor of Jesus!

What was your life before Christ? Mine was wayward. Apparently, it wasn’t as bad as Rahab’s because the sinfulness of my past is never tacked on to who I am. I’m never known as Carol “the …” (Oops. I’m forgiven. Not any of those epithets any longer.)

It doesn’t matter if you were a descendent of someone odious, or if you were a drunk, a cheat, a liar, fornicator, ordinary citizen, a bully, a wus, a coward, fill in the blanks. Look at Rahab. She became a herald of a new nation.

Who are you now? God can take your bad choices or directions or fate and create beauty.

Rahab didn’t stay a whore. Faith redeemed her.\

Available Now!

In my newest release, Prodigal Lives, we continue with the lives of Meredith Jaynes and Bean–now called Pearl. Pearl, descends into a sinful life like Rahab and reaps the consequences. Righteous Meredith is not immune to suffering. How do they find solace? Check out the story and the reviews. Prodigal Lives.