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by Katie Erickson

“By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” -Hebrews 11:29-31

After looking at the faith of Moses, the next logical people to look at is what’s known as the Exodus Generation – the time of the Exodus from Egypt and entering the Promised Land. Today’s passage looks at three separate incidents: crossing the Red Sea, conquering Jericho, and Rahab’s faith.

Note that the author of Hebrews does not mention the years of the nation of Israel wandering in the wilderness. But there is a good reason for that. Overall, they were not known to be of great faith; instead, they often grumbled and complained to God for their situation. They were also the people who created the idol of the golden calf, which was blatant disobedience while God was giving His law to Moses.

But the people are included in verse 29 where they had enough faith to pass through the Red Sea. However, they did not have a lot of choice in that matter. With the Egyptian army bearing down on them, it was either have faith in this miracle that occurred before their very eyes or get taken captive or even killed by the Egyptians!

God was the one who made this crossing happen, of course, even though Moses was obedient to God’s command to raise his staff; see Exodus 14 for more on that. But faith was still required of the people to be willing to cross. This was not simply some large stream or even a river they had to cross; it was the red sea! The distance is across is a minimum of 16 miles (up to 220 miles) depending on where they crossed. It had to be intimidating to be out in the middle, knowing that if God was not trustworthy, they would all drown.

That is exactly what happened to the Egyptian army. The Israelites had faith in God, so they made it through the Red Sea just fine. The Egyptians did not have faith in God, so they all drowned. This shows that Israel really did have faith in God that they trusted He would care for them as they crossed.

The next incident brought up by the author in verse 30 is the conquering of Jericho. Check out the full story in Joshua 6. This incident does not have faith attributed to one person, but the whole nation needed to have faith in God working a miracle for this to happen. There is no way that walking around a city and blowing trumpets would make its walls fall down without divine intervention. The warriors and musicians who participated in the marching would have needed to have great faith in God that what they were doing was not pointless but would actually accomplish their conquering of that fortified city.

If the people did not have faith in God, then they would have used all the military strength they could muster to try and take down the city. But just like how the Egyptian army drowned in the Red Sea because of their lack of faith, the Israelite army would have likely been slaughtered at Jericho, or at the very least unsuccessful in conquering the city. They needed to have faith in God that He would work out this situation in their favor.

The author of Hebrews wraps up this section in verse 31 by bringing up Rahab. You can read more about Rahab’s story in Joshua 2. Rahab was not a part of the nation of Israel but a resident of Jericho and a prostitute – two things that make it unusual for her to be included here in Hebrews 11 with the greats of Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. But she clearly played a great role in the Israelites conquering the Promised Land.

Rahab may not have been on a first-name basis with the God of Israel, but He still used her to accomplish His purposes and protect the spies that were sent into the city of Jericho before they conquered it. Rahab was obedient to what God called her to do, and she was rewarded for that – not only with her life but by being included in Jesus’ family tree (Matthew 1:5) and mentioned further in James 2:25.

What can we learn today from these faith experiences of the people of Israel? It must have sounded crazy to them to walk through a sea on dry land and to walk around a fortified city in order to make its walls fall down. It must have seemed unusual for the Israelite spies to think they could trust a prostitute who lived in the city they were trying to conquer, but she proved herself worthy of that trust. Sometimes God calls us to walk out our faith by doing things that seem crazy to us as well!

When I was in my early 20s, God called me to go to seminary and to begin preaching in churches. Depending on your faith tradition, that may not seem crazy to you; but for me, having grown up in a faith tradition that strongly believes that women should not go to seminary and should not preach, it felt about as foolish as trying to walk through the Red Sea or walking around Jericho to conquer it! But obedience to God through faith is always the right choice, no matter what the situation is. God takes what seems crazy to us and turns it into something that brings Him great glory when we obey Him in faith!

What is God calling you to do, whether big or small, that seems crazy? Step out in faith and do what He is calling you to do, no matter how crazy it seems.

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