Rahab didn’t start her day with a plan to commit treason. When two Israelite spies sauntered into Jericho, trying to look natural, but failing miserably, only then did she make her decision.

So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Joshua 2:3-7 NIV

Had the soldiers searched the house, Rahab and the spies would have been captured, possibly tortured, then killed. 

Rahab chose to betray her city, her people, her king, and her gods not only to keep her family safe, but also because she believed Israel’s God was the true God. Her decision to side with Israel didn’t end when the walls fell. Joshua 6:25 reads, “But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.”

Rahab became a God-fearer, a Gentile believer in the God of Israel. She exchanged one life for another—and we should do the same. 

In a declaration of independence much like our founding fathers made in 1776, God calls us to commit treason against the world:

• James 4:4 “. . . don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
• 1 John 2:15-16  ^“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
• John 15:19ab “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”

And it feels like treason. But as our founding fathers knew when they declared their independence, there’s more at stake than simply lifestyle changes.  And just as Rahab and the Sons of Liberty did, we must choose a new life. New priorities. New people. New purposes.

Patrick Henry said, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” 

Christ brings liberty from death, but liberty comes as we turn from the world’s system to our God, embracing the things that are important to Him and not those espoused by culture.

Make the break. Commit treason and take your place as sons and daughters of liberty.

Workout for the Week: Treason

Memory Verse: Choose one of the three above.

Meditation Passage: Joshua 2

Do It: Commit treason.