God indeed chooses people who are unworthy and unqualified, by our standards, and uses them in mighty ways. To me that says there's hope for me.
Now, let's look at the second woman mentioned in verse 5 of Matthew 1, where we read that Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. There's that second woman–Rahab.
Rahab's story is found in Joshua chapter 2. Rahab was not a Jewish descendant. In fact, she lived in Jericho and her people were enemies of the Jews. God had promised Joshua to give them all the land of Jericho , and Joshua sent two men to spy out the land of Jericho and bring back reports. These two men go over to Jericho and they stay at Rahab's hotel. Not only was Rahab not Jewish, she ran a house of prostitution, which was not uncommon in those days.
To make a long story short, Rahab bargains with these two spies and makes an agreement that when they come to destroy Jericho they will spare her home and her family. And that's what happened. Everything and everyone else in the land of Jericho was demolished, except for Rahab's house and the people in it. Not only was she spared, but she believed in their God and married one of their men, Salmon.
She and Salmon had a son named Boaz, and here we see Boaz right in the middle of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Rahab's son–the prostitute's son–an ancestor of Jesus Christ. And if you read Hebrews 11, the chapter that lists the great people of faith, there you'll find Rahab listed along with Moses and Abraham and David. Rahab was called a woman of faith. God used a prostitute. And He changed her and gave her an incredible place in history.
Would you have chosen Rahab? She didn't have the right background. She was from the wrong side of the tracks. She wasn't the right nationality. And she had been immoral. Sound like a list of acceptable qualities for someone to be used of God? Not by our standards. But God used her.
Rahab would say to me and you today, if God can use me, He can surely use you. There's hope for you and me.
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