Faith is demonstrated through the courageous actions of individuals like Jochabed and Rahab, who, despite facing dire circumstances, trusted in God's providence. Jochabed, Moses' mother, hid her infant son from Pharaoh's decree of death, exhibiting a mother's bravery and faith that mirrored Moses' later defiance of the king. Rahab, a harlot in Jericho, protected Israelite spies, recognizing Yahweh as the true God and seeking salvation for her family, ultimately becoming an ancestor of King David and Jesus Christ. Both women exemplify how faith, even when born in difficult or sinful situations, leads to deliverance and a place in God's redemptive plan.
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Now let's get my watch off. We must keep our eye on the time because this morning we want to meet, if we possibly can, two or at least three of the old girls of the school of faith. Will you turn to Hebrews chapter eleven? Hebrews chapter eleven and verse twenty-three. I think some of you are listing up the boys and girls under their right names, these grand old folks who've graduated out of the School of Faith.
We've met the headmaster, the father of spirits who watches over the school. We've faced a motto of the school that just shall live by faith. We've met boys and girls of different kind who came into the school in the kindergarten and graduated with a good report at the end of their school career. And now you and I as Christians have been brought into the same school in nineteen sixty four, sitting in the same desk, learning the same lessons. facing the same experiences, and God wants us to learn from these old boys and girls' deep lessons.
Verse twenty-three. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid. Now a superficial reading of this verse would think that it's Moses' faith spoken here, but it's not. Thy faith Moses, when he was born, was hid. Who hid him? Moses' mother. Here is a precious woman in the school of faith. Now we've got to find out who she is. We want to get her name, and so I'm asking you to turn back to Exodus chapter six and verse twenty.
And there we find the name of the mother and the father of Moses. Exodus six, verse twenty. And Amram took him, Jacobed, his father's sister to wife, and she bare him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were a hundred and thirty and seven years. Now we've got the name of the mother, Jacobed. And her faith is mentioned here as a faith of a mother who brought to the birth a little child and hid him.
And I'm going to give her the name the girl who was not afraid. Now, will you put that down? We have spoken of some of the boys. Abel was the boy who was right. Enoch was the boy who pleased... Nor was the boy who prepared. Abraham was the boy who obeyed. Sarah was the girl who was strengthened. Jacob was the boy who worshipped. And now we get this precious old girl, Jacobid. And she is the girl who was not afraid.
Now... Most people feel that men are most more courageous than women, but I rather doubt it. I think that women are tremendously courageous as they face the peculiar battles of womanhood. But here is a woman who brought to the birth a little boy, and that little boy from his birth was doomed to die. He was born under an edict of death. Every male child must be taken and thrown into the River Nile for the crocodiles to eat up, to be destroyed. And by faith, Jochabed, when Moses was born, hid him three months.
An amazing story. And of course, for the full story, you will have to turn back to Exodus chapter two. Now, I believe that very often mothers produce sons that are very like mother. The remarkable thing that this woman who was not afraid of the king's commandment produced a boy who, if you look down that chapter eleven in Hebrews to verse twenty seven, you read, by faith Moses pursued Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. The mother was not afraid of the king's commandment, but Moses, the son, grown to manhood, was not afraid of the wrath of the king.
And you remember how bravely and courageously he took his stand for the people of God and made a clean cut and went out to be... one of God's greatest men, a servant of God, a man of God, the world's greatest lawgiver, the leader of two million people who brought them out of Egypt to the very brink of the land of Canaan. And behind this boy was a darling mother. Now strangely enough, I love to think the Spirit of God has put the plural in, verse twenty-three of Hebrews eleven.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment. Father and Mother shared in this holy business of shielding that little life, of making provision for its future, and seeing it brought up to take its stand as a man to face the battle of life and be used of God. Now when I say this to you, faith is something that pleases God And when a man and a woman are drawn together in holy union, and of that holy union God the Creator has given them creative power, and a little tiny son is born, I love to think it's not two, but it's three.
You see, two are better than one. It's good for a man to leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one. And face and share the battles of life, the joys, the sorrows, the ups, the downs, all the comfort, the strength, the help they can give to each other. But listen, it's wonderful when two are better than one, but a three-fold cord is not easily broken. When a husband and wife can kneel together in prayer, can open the book of God and read it together, can share in service for God, can give themselves to the holy business of serving God, this makes a Christian whole.
And away in the land of Goshen, in primitive conditions, a precious woman called Jochabed and Amram her husband, with the conscious presence and blessing of God in their lives, had this precious little child, this son. Now, it wasn't a first-born son, there was a big girl called Miriam, and there was an older brother called Aaron. And little Moses was born at a time when a rich wretched king had said, Not only will give you no straw for your bricks, but any child born who's a male thrown into the river.
And the little boy was born to die. Now I can see a mother and father looking into each other's faces and saying, what can we do? It's a goodly child. God doesn't want this boy to be killed. It's a bundle of tremendous possibilities. And I can see a mother looking into a father's face and saying, what is the way of salvation? How does God save those that are doomed to die? Now this is a concern of parents' hearts. All that a mother and father can pass on to their child is Adam's nature, not a new spiritual nature.
That's why a child needs a new birth. And so as they looked at that child that was doomed to die, as many a parent with deep concern have said, My child is born in sin and shapen in iniquity. Sin has brought its stain to that little life. With all our care, with all our hiding, with all our shielding, sooner or later death will claim that little life. What can we do? A mother and father looked back in simple faith, and they said, God doesn't change. God's word doesn't change. When God says something, he means it.
And as they thought back to the book of beginnings, they said, listen, when God had condemned a race, Adam's race, to be lost and judged in the flood and swamped by death, he prevailed a way of salvation. And if God provides a way of salvation for one, he can do it for another. And if he told nor, and nor by faith, believed God and moved with fear, acted, why can't we courageously act? And so they did. After three months of shielding that little life, She went out and she took the reeds, the papyrus reeds from the very Nile, and she woven together in a little basket, and she got the butamen and the pits, and she pitched it without and within, and she made what Nora made, and took years to make an ark for the saving of his house, and when she had made the ark, and she had pitched it and made it watertight, They took the precious little bundle of possibilities and put it in the ark.
And they took the ark right down to the river of death and put it amongst the flags in the very nasty cold waters that would have swallowed it up in death and destruction. And they said, Oh, God, care for our child. We've hid it for three months, but you must look after it now. And oh, how God rewarded their faith. Pharaoh's daughter came for her bath, and her handmaidens were on the banks. They saw it. They were curious. They took it. They opened it. And the timings of God are so wonderful.
The babe wept, and there's nothing that can touch a woman's heart like a weeping baby. Men run away from it, but women are drawn to it. And she said, Oh, isn't it wonderful? It's one of the Hebrew children. And she said, Oh, finding is keeping. Listen, I shall need a nurse. And then Miriam came near. And Miriam said, Could I get a nurse for you? Oh, yes, run and get someone to look after the child. And Miriam called Mother Moses Mother. and a little baby is put back in her arms, and she's actually paid for nursing her own child.
How wonderful God is. You know, I hope you young married couples will consecrate your children to the Lord. I hope you will bring them and say, Lord, you said suffer the children. We want to hand them over to you. There's no need to go into any religious rite of water or christening, but all the consecration of the little baby life handed over. Put into Christ. For just as Noah's ark was a picture of Christ, and in Christ they were saved from the storm of judgment, so a little child can be committed to Christ.
and then handed back to be trained and brought up for the Lord, until they will make their own choice. Moses, choosing rather, the stirring battle to his own soul, brought a decision, and he made a clean cut with the people of God, and turned his back on Egypt. Precious Jacobid, the woman who was not afraid, Now, do you know the spirit of fear is far too manifest amongst Christians today? May I turn you to two Timothy chapter one?
May I show you a very important verse? Verse two Timothy chapter one and verse seven. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. I know the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That fear that made me conscious of my sin and shame and need and danger flee for refuge to the arms of the Savior.
I know a new fear takes its place in the heart of the Christian. I fear to grieve the Lord. I fear to fail him. That is godly fear. But there's another fear, fear which is torment, fear which torments souls and some Christians are afraid. afraid of the days they live in, afraid of the situations, afraid of death, afraid of ill health, afraid of sorrow, afraid of all sorts of things in the Battle of Life. And never forget this, it's when you face your life alone that these fears come.
Yes, if you're a married couple and you have fears, is it because you haven't stretched out a hand and said, Two are better than one, but, Lord, be our threefold cord. Lord, draw near and go with us, with all our fears and wanderings. Walk the way with us in intimate fellowship and share our life, and His love cast it out here. And he giveth not the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power and love and a sound mind. Learn this lesson. Precious Jochabed, the girl who was not afraid.
And by her faith in the living God, she saw a son grow up to take his stand for God, who was not afraid of the wrath of the king, and brought Pharaoh to his knees and delivered two million people out of Egypt. Now let's have a look at the next girl. I'd like to have spent more time with Jochabed, but we can't. We must go on. Hebrews eleven, verse thirty-one. Oh my, if you ask me, I would say that this is the naughtiest girl in the school. Last night we were talking about that rather difficult character, Jacob, down the riverside, but now we are face to face with the naughtiest girl in the school.
Oh dear, oh dear, but what God can do? Let me read the verse by... Faith, we are reading verse thirty-one, the harlot, it's a nasty word. It means a woman who has yielded her womanly charms and all the precious womanhood means to the evil lusts of wicked, selfish, nasty, sinful men, a harlot. but she is brought into the school of faith by faith.
Rahab, the harlot, perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with peace. The title I picked out for her is this, the girl who found peace. Instead of being One who perished in Cursed Jericho, she was delivered, and she found that wonderful thing called peace. It's great. You see, Jesus made peace for us by the blood of the cross.
And we can enjoy the peace of God that passes all understanding in our hearts and lives when we are right with God. In fact, the very God of peace comes to possess our lives. We've got something as Christians, peace. And this is the girl who found peace. Now let's think it out. Do you know that this girl was not a wife? No. But I must speak well of her. She was a magnificent daughter. I think I must ask you to turn back to Joshua chapter two, if you want the whole story.
It's a magnificent story. Joshua chapter two. and look at the opening verse. And the spies middle of the verse went and came unto a harlot's house named Rahab and Lodjder. You know the story as it moves forward, and I want to point out a verse, verse thirteen. The woman is speaking.
I'm asking that you will save alive my father, my mother, my brethren, my sisters, and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. What a daughter! She had made a home and the home was on the side of the wall near the gate of the city of Jericho. I'm sorry to have to say to the bishop was the home where the door was wide open for any man to come in. And when the spies came in through the gate into the city, where could they turn? Where could they hide as they wanted to spy out the situation?
And they went into the open door of a Harlitz house. They found a room there. They lay down to rest. And the news is stirring in the city that the king is after them. He's heard that the spies have come. And she takes them out of the room. And she says, Come upstairs. And upstairs they go onto the flat roof. And she hides them under some flax. And when the soldiers came, she says, No, she said they came in here. Of course, men are always coming in and out of here. But they've gone. They've gone out of the city gate. She was a liar. But you know she was so used to lying, she had no standards. She was born in the heathen city where people lied and sinned and were immoral.
It was a cursed city of Jericho. And all the time something was stirring in her heart. Now I wonder if you will look at it. Joshua chapter two, verse eight. And before they were laid down, she came up to them upon the roof, and she said to the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faked because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea, for you, when you came out of Egypt, and what he did to the two kings of the Amorites.
Verse eleven, and as soon as we heard these things our hearts did melt, neither did they remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is a God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Therefore, I pray, you swear unto me, by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, that you will show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token. Oh, do you realize that the story of the Exodus had gone ahead of the marching people through the desert? In the walled city of Jerusalem, it was the daily conversation, have you heard? Jah, Jehovah, the God of the Israelites' people, that brought Pharaoh to his knees, brought them to the Red Sea, and they're getting nearer and nearer, and they're camping the other side of Jordan.
And their hearts are melting. And here is a woman of Jericho, a heathen woman, who's not of Israel. And she says... Oh, somehow I know that this irresistible God, Jehovah, who's behind these people is the true God. I would like to know him. I would like to taste of his salvation. And as she faces the fact that the city is doomed around her, she seeks to find deliverance, a place of rest and peace and safety and salvation. And she's asking for a true token.
Give me a true token. Something about this woman. This is the faith. Faith being born in a heathen woman's heart for the great salvation of God. Now, let me say this to my younger friends. Do you know God never changes his basic tactics? Just as Jacob had in simple faith looked back and said, God saved eight souls by nor by faith in an ark, so God can save my child in a little ark. If only in faith I hand over the little child to the Lord, the Lord will give it back to me.
So, this woman who had heard of the judgments of God in Egypt, and how God had said to his people, Put the blood over the door and down the sideposts as a token. It shall be a token to me that something has died as a substitute, and inside that house there is a dead body roasted with fire, and the blood is a token for my eye to see, and when I see the blood I will overshadow the door, and be the Savior God. And this woman has heard the story, and she says, give me a true token.
She's after the same salvation that those people out of Egypt have enjoyed. She wants the same restful, powerful peace and deliverance that they have. And let me tell you, down in the haunts of sin today there are hearts a longing for peace. Don't you think that those fallen women and those bum men in the great cities of America are careless? Many of them stay with deep longing. Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish that I could have deliverance from sin's bondage, that I could be the man my grandfather or grandmother was.
And out of Jericho God got this great trophy and brought her into the school of faith. And what lessons she can teach us. A true token. Well, you know the story as it developed. They gave her the token. And do you know what it was? Well, if you look down at verse fifteen, you will find that in Joshua two, verse fifteen. Then she let the men down by a cord through the window, for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall, and she said unto them, Get you to the mountains, let the pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves there.
And the man said to her, verse seventeen, we will be blameless of this fine oath, which thou hast made us swear. Behold! Behold! When we come into the land, thou shalt find this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by. And thou shalt bring father and mother and brother, and thy father's household home unto thee, and it shall be that whosoever shall go out at the doors of thy house into the street, his blood be upon his head, we will be guiltless. And whosoever... Great gospel word, whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.
Oh, it's wonderful. Those men, the whole weight of those men, saved out of Jericho... are hanging on a line as she lets them down out of the window. This line bore the weight of two Israelite men in all their strength as they were let down the wall of Jericho and fled. And they said, Take the very line that took us safely out of Jericho and take this scarlet line and find it in the window. And when we approached the city and Jericho's destroyed, The house that has that scarlet line, that token, and just as the blood sprinkled doors spoke of the debt of a substitute, it seems as if that line, that lifeline, that scarlet lifeline that had taken the weight of two men down the city wall would be the token that God would save the household whosoever was in that household on Jericho's walls.
Now there's a thrill for us as we close having a look at Rahab, the harlot, the girl who found peace. My young friends, will you take your Bibles and will you turn to Matthew chapter one? Matthew chapter one, this long, long, difficult, troublesome chapter, full of its names and names and names, but so important. Mr. Woodhouse told you that Matthew wrote for the Jewish people, and he pictures the Messiah King, and we must have his genealogy.
And it starts in verse one, the book of the genealogy or generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Now let's start with Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob. These are all people in the school of faith. This is the line by which the seed of the woman and the seed of David is going to come into the world born in Bethlehem to win our redemption. Now look at verse four. And Aram begat Aminadab and Aminadab begat Nason and Nason begat Selman.
Now, who is Mr. Salmon? Not Mr. Salmon. Call him by his right name, Mr. Salmon. Who is Mr. Salmon? Let's get it. One of those who came out of the desert wanderings and threw the Jordan and approached Jericho and saw the walls of Jericho fall down flat. And went in and spoiled the city and saw it burning. Mr. Salmon, brother Salmon in one of the tribes of the Israelites born out of Egypt. Now read it, verse five. And Salmon begat... Booth it's got in yours, but the margin says Boaz.
B-O-A-S. Begat Boaz of who? R-A-C-A-K-B. Well, who is that? Rahab. See it in the margin? Your margin has it like mine. In other words, Rahab, one who was brought into Israel, converted and brought in by faith, and when her city was destroyed, moved on into the land with them, and her family, she married Rahab Selman. And Brother Selman and Rahab now are married, and they produce a little boy called Boaz, and he settles down to be a nice farmer just by Bethlehem.
And he was the one who fell in love with who? Ruth? And married her, Ruth the Moabiteish girl, and their little child that was born was named who? Jesse, who kept the beautiful farm and had the family of boys, and the youngest boy was named, David. And David begat Solomon the great king, and you can go right down the list until you come to the sixteenth verse, Jacob the cat, Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, which is called Christ.
In other words, Rahab the harlot. was the grandmother, no, sorry, the great-grandmother of David, and was in the line of the coming of the Christ. Oh, the grace of God that brings boys and girls into the school of faith. And that wonderful thing called faith can grow from no faith to little faith to great faith. And Rahab graduated a sound character out of the school of faith for the glory of God.
We've only been able to maybe meet two of the girls, but don't forget them, Chakabed and Rahab. God bless you.