Friday: Further Thought – Surprised by Grace
Daily Lesson for Friday 10th of October 2025
Read Ellen G. White, “Crossing the Jordan,” Pages 482, 483, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
After this story of Rahab and the spies, the rest of the Old Testament is silent about her until she emerges again in the genealogy of Jesus. It is stated that she became the wife of Salmon (from the tribe of Judah), the mother of Boaz, and the mother-in-law of another remarkable woman mentioned in the same genealogy: Ruth (Matthew 1:5; compare with Ruth 4:13,21). Through her faith in God, the prostitute of Jericho, condemned to total destruction, becomes a significant link in the royal line of David and a progenitor of the Messiah. This is what God is able to accomplish through faith, even if it might be only the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6).
“And her [Rahab’s] conversion was not an isolated case of God’s mercy toward idolaters who acknowledged His divine authority. In the midst of the land a numerous people—the Gibeonites—renounced their heathenism and united with Israel, sharing in the blessings of the covenant.
“No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste, is recognized by God. He is the Maker of all mankind. All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple courts, that every soul may have free access to God. His love is so broad, so deep, so full, that it penetrates everywhere. It lifts out of Satan’s influence those who have been deluded by his deceptions, and places them within reach of the throne of God, the throne encircled by the rainbow of promise. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free.”—Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, Pages 369, 370.
Discussion Questions
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The story of the Gibeonites is a salient one for us. They came to Joshua in their dirty, tattered, worn clothes to earn salvation. But they left in servitude, which was ultimately their salvation. The really important thing for them was not the success of their deceit, but rather they had come to the right person.
I guess that for many of us, we came into, and/or stayed with the Seventh-day Adventist Church with the notion that if we said all the right things, ate the right foods, and obeyed all the rules, particularly the Sabbath, then we would be saved. The issue for us is that we are practicing a deceit. But, like the Gibeonites we have come to the right place where we should be able to meet with Jesus, who can see through our self-deceit and bind us to him in servitude.
What we need to understand that salvation and service are bolted together at the hip. That is how self-sacrificing love works. All our erudite explanations of the mechanisms of salvation are of little value if we do not serve others. We come to save ourselves in deceit, learn to serve, and in doing so, come to understand the deeper meaning of salvation.
Paul has this to say:
Jesus is our example
Genghis Khan, the former Khagan of the Mongol Empire in the 12th century, used a tactic of leaving a few survivors to spread terrifying tales of a city's destruction, aiming to demoralize future enemies into surrendering without a fight. This form of psychological warfare involved sending messengers ahead with an offer to surrender or face total annihilation.
Unlike the Khagan's strategy, God's gracious and glorious strategy is His superb mission to rescue mankind and bring them back to Himself. God goes ahead of Israel and reaches out to the inhabitants of Canaan in His might and glory, leaving open a room for them to access His mercy, love and grace by simply believing and receiving Him.
The inhabitants of Canaan who witness and testify are faced with a choice of:
What stands out most clearly is that God can make anyone He chooses His "favorites" - the chosen, the clean, the "unclean", the "unkempt", the "unworthy", the "defective", et al. Rahab and the Gibeonites responded to God's glory and grace by believing and receiving, and they were uprooted from Canaan to be part of God's "chosen". Perhaps we, too, are not too far away from this glorious grace - if we would just believe and receive, God would handle the rest.
We have plenty of things in our lives that we wish we could do over, moments we regret, words we shouldn’t have said, or choices we wish we could change. Rahab’s story in Joshua 2 is a powerful reminder that the God we serve is a God of second chances. Though she was a prostitute living in Jericho, God saw beyond her past and into her heart. When she chose to hide the Israelite spies, Rahab declared her faith, saying, “I know that the Lord has given you this land” (Joshua 2:9, NIV). Because of her faith and obedience, God spared her and her family when Jericho was destroyed (Joshua 6:25). Her story teaches us that no matter where we come from or what we’ve done, God’s mercy can rewrite our story when we trust in Him.
Just as Jesus showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery, God showed mercy to Rahab. Both women were judged and condemned by others, yet God saw their hearts and offered them grace instead of punishment. Rahab’s faith not only saved her life but also placed her in the lineage of Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 1:5), proving that God can turn any life around for His glory. These stories remind us that God does not define us by our sins but by our faith and willingness to change. Through His love, He gives us all a chance to start over, just as He did for Rahab and the woman brought before Jesus.
Like Joshua, we often face moments that call for both justice and grace. True wisdom is knowing how to uphold truth while showing mercy. Justice keeps us accountable; grace keeps our hearts tender. When guided by God, both can work together to bring healing and restoration instead of bitterness.
Justice without grace becomes cruelty;
Grace without justice becomes compromise.
But when the two meet as they do at the cross we find true restoration and peace.