In the account of Rahab the harlot, God gave us an amazing revelation of the power in the blood to protect. I sit this evening in Israel, not far south of Jericho. Out my window I see the mountains of Moab changing colors in the light of the setting sun. They lie east of the Jordan River in present-day Jordan.
But from my vantage point, too far away to reveal detail, they appear as they must have 3,300 or so years ago when the children of Israel passed through on their way to the Promised Land. In these surroundings, my mind wonders anew at the remarkable faith of a Canaanite harlot. For what Rahab did, the Bible says, she did by faith. (Heb. 11:31) And my mind wanders back easily to the circumstances of her world.
This whole country was filled with fear. The massive multitude of the children of Israel (perhaps two and a half million) had destroyed the kingdoms that tried to stop their move toward the land of Canaan. The Bible describes the state of the area’s kings: “Their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them anymore, because of the children of Israel.” (Josh. 5:1)
The inhabitants of Jericho, a Canaanite city-state, were terrified. Yet in the midst of a frightened population, one woman exercised faith so great it gained for her a good report from God and a place in two Bible halls of fame, the lineage of Jesus, and the elders of faith. (Matt. 1:5; Heb. 11:2,31)
Every circumstance of Rahab’s life and society was against her exercising such faith. The headlines, so to speak, of the day warned of impending doom. Her religion was against her. The Canaanite religion sacrificed children in the fire and centered on sex. (Deut. 13:10,11) The Revell Bible Dictionary says, “The religion of the Canaanites focused on fertility… religions’ rites employed sex… to stimulate the gods and goddesses to grant fertility to the land and to their livestock.”
The moral and religious depravity of the Canaanites, portrayed in Scripture and revealed even more clearly in the materials recovered from Ugarit by archaeologists, explains why God commanded Israel to totally destroy these people within the borders of the Promised Land.
The war of extermination was a long-delayed divine judgment on the Canaanites. (Gen. 15:16) Jehovah’s plan seemed to be against Rahab. The Creator of the universe determined it was time to execute judgment upon her society. And she lived in the most dangerous spot on the globe. Her house was on the city wall which God had decreed must fall.
Rahab’s faith deserves close consideration. It reveals a way to use the power of the blood in the face of today’s events. Joshua sent two spies to Jericho. They lodged at the harlot’s house, possibly because it would not arouse suspicion. When the king of Jericho heard it, he sent men in after them. Rahab hid the spies under stalks of flax upon her flat roof while she managed to get rid of the king’s men. Before the Hebrew spies left she said to them:
“I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Armorites, that were on the other side of Jordan, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath.” (Josh. 2:9-11)
Rahab heard the same news everyone in town heard – the supernatural acts of Israel’s God. Fear filled the hearts of the overwhelming majority. Faith filled Rahab’s heart, for she decided to believe Jehovah must be the true God. Based upon her belief, her faith spoke:
“Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have and deliver our lives from death.” (Josh. 2:12,13)
Rahab dared to ask for the lives of her father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters, and she wanted all their possessions, their material goods, their belongings. It’s a good thing she hadn’t talked to some people today. They’d have talked her out of such audacity. It evidently pleased God. (Heb. 11:6,31) Rahab also wanted a true token – a sign.
If the spies had not been running for their lives, they might have slain a lamb and placed the same token upon Rahab’s doorposts which was sprinkled upon the Hebrew’s doorposts when judgment was coming to Egypt forty years earlier. This time a scarlet cord would have to do for Rahab and her family. A scarlet line would represent the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
“Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee. And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless, and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. And she said, ‘According to your words, so be it.’ And she sent them away, and they departed; and she bound the scarlet line in the window.” (Josh. 2:18,19,21)
Sometime later, with no natural weapons, Israel executed God’s plan to the utter destruction of Jericho. For six days, Jericho’s trembling residents watched a strange processional. The ark of the presence, priests blowing trumpets of rams’ horns, and the host of Israel compassed their city walls once each day. Yet no Hebrew made a sound with his voice. On the seventh day, Israel compassed the city seven times. At the seventh time, Joshua said unto the people, “Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city.” (Josh. 6:16)
“And the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city. But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye swore to her. And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred [Hebrew families]. And Joshua saved Rahab, the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had.” (Josh. 6:20-23,25)
When the Word of God is repetitive it is for a purpose. We are supposed to get the point. Over an over, the Bible emphasizes the saving of Rahab’s loved ones. The word “kindred” in verse 23 is the Hebrew word for families, plural. It indicates that extended families somehow related to Rahab were saved. Over and over, the Bible emphasizes the saving of their material goods. If a Canaanite harlot’s faith can protect family and goods, how much more can a New Testament believer’s faith in the power of the blood of the risen Redeemer protect loved ones and possessions. If we cannot draw a bloodline around our loved ones and property in this hour of peril and even judgment, then we do not have a better covenant based on better promises. But we can!
The Bible calls the blood upon the doorposts of the Israelites that first Passover in Egypt “a token.” (Ex. 12:13) It calls Rahab’s scarlet cord “a true token.” (Josh. 2:12) Tokens are signs. They are to be displayed. God gave the rainbow as His “token” that the world would never again be destroyed by water. (Gen. 9:11-17) He has displayed that token somewhere upon the earth many times a day from that day to this. We are to continually display the token of the blood of Jesus and its power over the doorposts and boundaries of our lives. How? By faith. By the words of our mouths because we believe in our hearts. That’s what the old-timers did when they would “plead the blood!”
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Billye Brim's Christian heritage is rich. She sensed the call of God in early childhood. However, it was only after an encounter with the Holy Spirit in 1967, that she as a young wife and mother of four began to follow Him to walk out her call. For almost ten years she served as Editor of Publications for Kenneth E. Hagin Ministries where she also taught at Rhema Bible Training Center.
Immediately after ordination in 1980, she traveled to Soviet Russia in what proved to be ongoing ministry there. Since then she has literally ministered around the world several times over.
Kent and Billye Brim with Lee and Jan Morgans founded a local church in Collinsville, Oklahoma. A Glorious Church Fellowship is the foundation of Billye Brim Ministries and Prayer Mountain in the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri, and the soon-to-be-built Migdal Arbel Prayer and Study Center in Israel.
When Kent passed away in 1986, Billye was led to "study Hebrew in the Land." Studying at Ulpan Akiva in Israel led to the unique Seminar Tours she has guided in the Land from 1986 to now. It also provided a pattern for the Prayer and Study Center in Israel.
"Helping Pray-ers" is a God-given directive in her life. One place this happens is at Prayer Mountain in the Ozarks near Branson, Missouri. On 200 plus acres log cabins provide places for individual prayer or small prayer groups. Corporate prayer meetings are held twice a week in the chapel.
On Wednesdays at 12 Noon Central Time, the meeting is streamed live. Pray-ers (who have named themselves World-Wide Pray-ers) join in united prayer via thousands of computers in more than 60 nations. This prayer is focused primarily on an Awakening to God. For in a corporate prayer meeting in June 2008, Billye Brim and the pray-ers were impressed with these words: One thing will save America…an Awakening to God. One thing will avail for Israel and the nations, An Awakening to God. Several thousand pray-ers from around the world gather in Branson for an Autumn Assembly of Prayer she hosts.
Billye Brim is blessed to work with others across the Body of Christ. She strongly believes in walking out what Scripture teaches that we are one Body, with one Head, one Spirit, one Lord.
First Corinthians 10:32 is foundational in Billye Brim's ministry. The "good works that He has ordained that she should walk in" involve activity among the Jews, the Nations, and the Church-all to the Glory of God.