The Neighborhood Podcast

"Rahab and Deborah" (July 13, 2025 Sermon)

• Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing

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Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing

Two women stand tall in ancient stories, challenging us to see beyond the confining labels we place on others. Rahab, known through centuries primarily as "the prostitute," was actually a savvy negotiator who rescued her entire family from destruction when Jericho fell. Yet while her profession gets endlessly mentioned, the Israelite men who visited her establishment face no similar judgment—a double standard that persists to this day.

Then there's Deborah, a fiery prophet and military strategist who led Israel to victory and provided forty years of peace—longer than nearly any other biblical leader. Despite her extraordinary leadership, later biblical accounts either minimize her role or erase her entirely, giving credit to her male general Barak instead. Even in Hebrews 11, the Bible's "hall of fame" of faithful people, Barak gets mentioned while Deborah disappears.

These ancient stories expose our troubling tendency to reduce complex human beings to convenient labels. Who are the Rahabs among us today that we reduce to a single aspect of their identity? Is it the immigrant labeled only as "illegal," the performer seen only through one lens, or the political opponent reduced to a stereotype? Jesus himself modeled a different way by including Rahab in his family tree, demonstrating his solidarity with those society had labeled and dismissed. As we follow his example, we're invited to see and celebrate the full humanity of everyone we encounter. After all, everyone has a story that matters—and they deserve to have that story told completely.

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Speaker 1:

So the first reading is from the book of Joshua, chapter 2, verses 1 through 15. Then Joshua, son of Nun, sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying Go view the land, especially Jericho. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute, whose was Rahab, and spent the night there. The king of Jericho was told some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land. Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out the whole land. But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said true, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And when it was time to close the gate, at dark, the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them. She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords.

Speaker 1:

As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men I know that the Lord has given you the land and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt and when you did to the two kings of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and when you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sahan and Og, whom they utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and there was no courage left in any of us because of you, the Lord. Your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below.

Speaker 1:

Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faith that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death. The men said to her our life for yours. If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you. When the Lord gives us the land, then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer side of the city wall and she resided within the wall itself. Holy wisdom, holy word.

Speaker 2:

All right, friends, as we continue our march through the stories of the women of the Old Testament. We have heard the story of Rahab and now we turn to Deborah, using the words from Judges 4, 1 through 16,. Let's listen again for what God is saying to God's church. The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. So the Lord sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harsha-Hagalim. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly 20 years years.

Speaker 2:

At that time, deborah, a prophet, a fiery woman, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel, in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came up to her for judgment. She sent and summoned Barak, son of Abinuim, from Kadesh and Naphtali, and said to him the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, position yourself at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand. Barak said to her if you will go with me I will go, but if you will not go with me I won't go. And she said I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kadesh. Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh and 10,000 warriors went up behind him and Deborah went up with him, went up behind him and Deborah went up with him. Now Heber the Canaanite had separated from the other Canaanites, and that is, the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, and had encamped as far away as Ilan-biz-an-nim-mah, which is near Kadesh. When Sisera was told that Barak, son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor, sisera called out all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the troops who were with him from Haroseth Hagoim to the Wadi Kishon. Then Deborah said to Barak Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot while Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth Hagohim and all the army of Sisera fell by the sword. Not one was left.

Speaker 2:

Friends, holy wisdom, holy word, thanks be to God. Let us pray, o Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, o Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen, amen, all right, instead of one big sermon you get two mini sermons over two courageous women. First, rahab. Rahab the wise, rahab the negotiator, rahab the courageous, rahab the savior All of these would be fitting labels for the woman who saved her family and everyone in her household from death and destruction.

Speaker 2:

But the Bible and readers across the centuries remember simply as Rahab the what the prostitute. Women have long been stigmatized for their sexuality in ways that many of us men almost always seem to escape. Some of y'all may not know that my wife Tricia used to do a fair amount of street ministry in metro Atlanta. She worked a lot with women in clubs and on the streets, many of whom were strippers and sex workers. When I discussed this passage with Tricia a few days ago, she said to me simply you know, it's a tale as old as time. The Johns never get the blame. It's always the women who suffer the consequences. For example, when we read the story of Rahab, most of us don't blink an eye at the fact that the two Israelite spies likely did not go to Rahab's place of business with innocent intentions. Womanist scholar Wilda Gaffney argues that it's silly to believe that the spies went there for any reason other than to buy sex.

Speaker 2:

Yet Rahab is remembered throughout the centuries as a prostitute, while, to my knowledge, no biblical commentary that I'm aware of refers to these two spies as John's. This double standard extends beyond the Old Testament into the New Testament. Interestingly, this same woman, rahab, is one of five women who is mentioned in Jesus's genealogy in the gospel of Matthew. Now, mercifully, matthew simply calls her Rahab there, without the sordid detail of her profession. But Rahab is mentioned later on in the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews, where the author has a section where they list a group of people who exemplify great faithfulness, but in that context she is called Rahab the prostitute. Interestingly, king David is praised for his faithfulness just a verse or two later, but he is, of course, not referred to as David the murderer or David the womanizer, both of which would have been honest descriptions. No, david gets a pass, as fate would have it. A couple verses later, barak, the general that we read about today, who refused to go into battle without his commander-in-chief, deborah, is also honored in that passage in Hebrews for his faithfulness, but Deborah received no mention at all.

Speaker 2:

Now, when it comes to Rahab, please hear me, I'm not taking a position either for or against sex work. That's not what this sermon is about. I think there's a more important issue at hand here. I think that this text raises for us an important question who are the Rahab's among us that we are guilty of reducing to just one aspect of their personhood? Is it the woman we call an illegal alien who carried her baby on her back across the desert to escape gang violence? No, is it the drag queen who is no more danger to our children than any other random straight white guy? Is it the guy in the red MAGA hat who acts as a good Samaritan to someone stranded by the side of the road? Friends, there are Rahabs all among us. Maybe you know what it's like to be labeled something, either fairly or unfairly, that weighs on you long after the fact. Perhaps that's why the author of Matthew's Gospel thought it important to list Rahab in Jesus' family history, because so much of Jesus' compassion was aimed squarely at the Rahabs amongst him and his followers was aimed squarely at the Rahabs amongst him and his followers.

Speaker 2:

Now I want to shift our attention from Rahab the savior to another woman who also saved her people. After the Rahab story, the Israelites settled into the land God promised them, under the leadership of a series of judges who guided them before all of those kings came along Saul, david Solomon, so on and so forth and one of these judges, the only one that was a woman, was a woman named Deborah. The text describes her as a prophet, calls her a fiery woman as a prophet, calls her a fiery woman and considers her a brave political and military leader. You may have seen some artistic depictions of her holding court beneath the palm tree, as is mentioned in today's text, and her leadership was so strong that her general Barak refused to go into battle against the Canaanites without her by his side. The text is very clear that it was a remarkable victory. Deborah's leadership causes the Canaanites to panic and their commander, sisera, fled. You may know the rest of that story. Sisera found shelter in a tent with a woman by the name of Jael, who, unfortunately for him, was skilled at using a tent peg in inventive ways. If you're interested in that story, there's more details on it later on in your bulletin. She killed him with the tent peg, just so you know.

Speaker 2:

Following the Israelite victory over the Canaanites, deborah then governed the Israelites for 40 years 40 years of peace and prosperity. This makes her one of the longest serving leaders in all of the history of Israel. Only David Solomon and another king by the name of Joash served longer, although it should be noted that all three of those had very notable character flaws. But Deborah is remembered entirely positively for her wisdom, her courage and her strength of leadership. Similar to Rahab, she often does not receive full recognition in subsequent biblical references. For instance, as I said, in Hebrews 11, rahab is again referred to as a prostitute, and the text mentions Barak but omits Deborah herself.

Speaker 2:

And then later on in the Old Testament, in the book of 1 Samuel, there is a recounting of that very battle, and all of the credit gets attributed to Barak rather than Deborah. As we reflect on the stories of Rahab and Deborah, it becomes clear that both of these women embody qualities of resilience and strength. Yet their legacies are often overshadowed by historical biases. Rahab, despite her profession, shows extraordinary courage and wisdom, saving not only her family but playing a key role in the Israelite conquest of Jericho. And Deborah, as we've mentioned, stands out as a symbol of leadership during a time when women's voices were often silenced. Deborah's military skill and prophetic insight led to this major victory, proving that wisdom and bravery are not limited by gender. Yet the stories of these women remind us that society often labels individuals with a single identity, ignoring the complexity of their true selves. Rahab is forever called the prostitute, while Deborah's achievements are overshadowed by the more visible male figures around us. This pastor thinks that this calls us to challenge these narrow narratives and recognize the complexities, not only of these women in the Bible, but for all of our neighbors all around us. Who among us has been reduced to just one story? Ask Doubting Thomas. He knows a thing or two about that, who are the voices that have long been silenced or ignored in our communities.

Speaker 2:

So I hope that, as we gather here today, that we can strive to be advocates for those who, like Rahab and Deborah, possess a deep character that goes beyond the labels that society burdens them with. It's our duty to lift up the marginalized and recognize their contributions and make sure their stories are fully told. Part of that is the work of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus included Rahab in his genealogy, let us embrace the variety of experiences and backgrounds that make up this neighborhood. So in doing so, not only will we honor the legacies of these remarkable women, but I think you and I can build a culture of compassion and understanding.

Speaker 2:

I hope we remember that everyone has a story and that every story matters. Everyone has a story and that every story matters. I hope that you go away this day inspired by Rahab's courage and Deborah's leadership. As we seek to uplift all of those around us, ensuring that no one person is defined by a single aspect of their story or their identity. Let's work together towards a world where everyone is seen, valued and celebrated for the whole of who they are. In the name of God, the creator, redeemer and sustainer. May all of us, god's beloved neighbors, say amen.