CHRISTMAS MESSAGE #1

An Unexpected Woman in an Unexpected Place
Matthew 1:1-3a, Genesis 38:1-30

 Brothers and sisters in our Lord,

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Christmas.  Oh, yes, we might hear about those people in far off cities who tear down Nativity Scenes and decry Christmas carols.  But in general–isn’t it true?!–we like Christmas.

But sometimes we need to reminded that Christmas is about more than bright light and wrapping paper.  It can become this, you know.  We can become so focused on what we get that we forget about what God has given. 

And so this morning we begin a series of sermons which focus on the coming Christmas season.  These sermons will be taken from Matthew 1:1-17.  When you read through these verses from Matthew 1 you might wonder what Christmas has to do with a genealogy. 

The answer?  Everything! 

This chapter focuses our attention on the purpose of Christmas.  Using four woman, plus Mary the mother of our Lord, God directs our attention to who Christ would be.  I could probably put it more succinctly this morning about the woman Tamar and her account in Genesis 38: God uses the unexpected to bring about certain arrival of the Savior.

1. Unjust oversight (1-11)

The story of Judah and Tamar opens with what must have been a relatively common problem in the Old Testament.  We read at the beginning of the chapter that Judah had married, and from that marriage he had three sons.  The name of the first was Er, the second, Onan, and the third Shelah.  When Er had grown to manhood Judah finds a woman for him to marry–a woman by the name of Tamar.  Although the Bible does not tell us exactly where this Tamar came from, her name indicates that she, like Judah’s wife, was a Canaanite.

But verse 7 tells us that for some unnamed grievous wickedness the Lord took the life of Er.  That left the family with, as I have said, what must have been a relatively common problem.  You see, it was important that this dead man Er have a son to carry on the family name.  Without that son Er’s line would cease to exist.  Later on in the book of Deuteronomy God made provisions for the continuation of the family name by what is known as “levirate marriage.”  Later on this system of marriage became part of the Mosaic Law in Deuteronomy 25:5ff.

This is how levirate marriage worked.  When a man who was married died, his brother was to take the widow as his wife, go into her, and perform the duties of being a husband to her.  And when this woman conceived and bore a son, that son would be counted as the first man’s offspring.  It was very important to keep your family name present in Israel.  It meant that the land you had been given would continue to your family–as well as the simple fact that your family would be counted among God’s covenant people. 

It was possible that the man who should marry the widow would refuse.  But such refusal was taken as an embarrassment–and an affront to God. You, again, can read about this in Deuteronomy 25:5ff.

But this practice of levirate marriage was evidently already present in the account we are reading about here.  So the second of Judah’s sons, Onan, is told to fulfill his responsibility to Tamar.  But some things are not right about what he does.

First, he does not marry Tamar as he should have.  Perhaps she was not the woman who caught his fancy, or he simply thought marriage before intimacy wasn’t a problem–but for whatever reason he goes to be intimate with her apart from marriage.  Further, when he is being intimate with her he intentionally avoids impregnating her.  Why?

For no other reason than he is selfish.  He doesn’t want to have a son who will not be counted as his own.  He thinks about himself before what is right.  And so what do we read?  But God also put him to death.

That left the third of Judah’s three sons, Shelah.  Only at this point he is too young.  So Tamar is told to go and live in her father’s house until Shelah becomes old enough. 

But we have reason to believe Judah never really intended to give Shelah to Tamar.  Perhaps Judah believed there was something about Tamar that caused his sons to die.  Or perhaps he thought Shelah could do better.  Or maybe even Judah simply thought it was not all that important.

Whatever the reason, the point becomes very clear.  Judah is not looking out for the best interests of his daughter-in-law.  His unjust oversight comes at her expense.  She was left without a husband and was not allowed to marry anyone but Shelah.  To do so would have been to break her understanding with her father-in-law.  Further Judah’s unjust oversight leaves Tamar without any children–or even any hope of having children.  And finally, Judah’s unjust oversight leaves Tamar poor and uncared for.  She is left to eek out an existence in her father’s house.

There is no question that the first part of this story drips with sin.  Er sinned.  Onan sinned.  And most of all now, Judah sinned.  Even though a greater sin becomes apparent in Judah’s actions later in this account it is important we take note of something important right here: Judah’s inaction toward his daughter-in-law was more than simple neglect.  It was wrong.  It was sinful.  It was an unjust oversight.

2. Unrighteous rendezvous (12-23)

But if we were able to ask Judah was he was doing, he might have offered an excuse or two.  Perhaps his primary excuse would be based on what we read in 12: Judah’s wife died.  He might have offered to us that in his grief over the loss of his own wife he had simply forgotten about Tamar.

Or if that didn’t work, Judah might have also suggested that he was a preoccupied businessman.  Verses 12-23 of our chapter cast Judah’s subsequent actions against the backdrop of “lots to do.” 

In fact the “lots to do” in this case involved the matter of sheep-shearing.  Verse 12 tells us that Judah went up to Timnah with his friend Hirah to observe the shearing of the sheep there.  There are two things about this sheep-shearing that are indicated in the story–but we may not pay much attention to.

First, Timnah was almost certainly some distance from where Judah was living.  Biblical historians can tell us for certain where the city was, but there two best guesses are that the city was right on the boarder of Judah.  In other words, Judah was going away from home.  And like a businessman away on the trip, all alone on his hotel room, Judah would be tempted to do something he would not ordinarily have done–after all, so far from home, who would know?

The second important thing about this sheep-shearing is that it was a major celebration in the time Judah lived.  Sheep-shearing made money.  So along with the work came a festive attitude.  Remember David’s request to Abigail’s husband Nabal later on in 1 Samuel 25?  It was based on the same festive attitude.  And with this partying, this feasting, was Judah tempted in a way he might not have been ordinarily.  Did he do something he would otherwise not have?

We find out as we move along in the story.  Tamar evidently hears of her father-in-law’s plans.  So she lays some of her own.  She puts aside her identifying widow’s clothes.  Further, she disguises herself–and so goes to a place where her father-in-law would see her.  Further, it would appear, she goes to a place where prostitutes would sit.  She is, in other words, laying a trap for her father-in-law.  He has deceived her by telling her his third son would be her husband.  Now she will deceive him by a veiled representation of herself.

It is not long and Judah does come by.  And he perfectly well understands what that woman is beside the road.  Perhaps it is a place well known for prostitutes.  Like what we would call, the red light district.  Regardless, he knows, she knows, and a deal is struck. 

The deal is very clear one.  On Tamar’s part that is. They agree on something Judah does not have readily at hand.  She know he is coming for sheep shearing.  So she requests a goat.              Because you see, she is not so much interested in the goat–she would rather like a sign that Judah has indeed, as the Bible says, come into her.  That he was sexually intimate with her outside the bonds of marriage.  So when it becomes very apparent that Judah is unprepared to give her the goat she requests, that he instead gives her his signet and cord and staff.  All three personal items.  Items that no one else but Judah himself would be able to give to her.  All items that would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who the man was that she had been with.

And after Judah leaves, Tamar also goes home.  For Tamar, she must now wait.

But not so for Judah.  After he returns home he tries to get his signet and cord and staff back.  He sends a goat by his friend, but lo and behold . . . no prostitute is found!  In fact we are given the impression they look high and low for this woman–Judah wants his things back–but the woman simply can not be found.

Interestingly, according to verse 23, Judah begins to have a conscience about what he has done.  Imagine that, after breaking God’s law and going into to this woman, what begins to bother him now?  It is not that he has done what is wrong.  It is not that he has sinned against another one of God’s creations, this woman.  No, he says in verse 23, Let her take them for herself, lest we be shamed; for I sent this young goat and you have not found her.

What finally gets to Judah is the embarrassment factor.  Judah begins to wonder what this looks like to others.  What will people say if they see people who represent him looking high and low for this prostitute?!  It will not look good!  So, it is, glancing this way and that, to make certain no one has really seen what he has done, that Judah gives up the search for this prostitute.

And it is likely that in his eyes this was the end of the story.  There are loose ends–like are always are when people get involved in this sort of thing.  That was certainly some wondering about whether or not this would come back to haunt him.  But for the time being everything appears to be O.K.

Importantly, however, not much has changed in Judah’s attitude since the time he withheld his youngest son from Tamar.  There his interest was solely his own.  He was looking out for himself and what seemed best to him.  It is still Judah first.

3. Self defacing decree (24-26)

But as we know from verses 24-26 this is not the end of the story.  There is more.

Only it must have seemed, at first to Judah, to be totally unconnected.  Three months later it is discovered that Tamar is expecting a child.  Further it is bound to be the case that Tamar could have come to expect a child in only one way.  Since Judah has not given his son to her, she could only be pregnant by an illicit means. 

And in a rage Judah demands Tamar be brought out.  He demands that this sort of thing not be allowed.  She must pay the price for her actions.  In fact not only will she give with her life for her sin, she must be publicly burned for it.

Importantly, this sentence was not what God would later say must be done.  Deuteronomy 22:21 says Then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

There would be some cases in which the one who was sexually immoral would be burned, but certainly not a case like this.  Judah seems to want to go beyond justice to example.  He wants everyone to see what happens to someone who commits adultery.  Look at this! he says.  Is this what you want to have happen to you?  Then stay pure! 

Only one problem–isn’t there.  It is the problem of his own actions.  In what happens next the duplicity of his own character is revealed.  Oh, he who seems to be so jealous to do what is right . . . he is the one indicted.  We read, verse 25, When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, "By the man to whom these belong, I am with child." And she said, "Please determine whose these are -- the signet and cord, and staff."

As the case with nearly every sin, eventually the truth comes out.  Who is going to argue whether or not the signet, the cord, the staff, are Judah’s?  And who is to argue with how Tamar came to have possession of them? 

If anything Judah’s pronouncement now convicts himself.  Just as when Nathan the prophet came before David and told a parable of a rich man taking a poor man’s one sheep.  What was David’s reaction?  Anger!  Let him be punished!  Perhaps the same thing that Judah has here: a guilty conscience speaking.

Judah acknowledges his sin.  He realizes in verse 26 that if he would have done what was right Tamar would likely never had the occasion to do what was wrong.  He acknowledges his sin.  She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.

And furthermore, as it says next, he was never intimate with her again. 

4. Saving grace (27-30)

Which brings us, this morning, to the last five verses of the chapter.  In some ways they appear to be nothing more than a conclusion.  As in, Judah and Tamar did what we wrong, but here now is the result.

Yes, we are told the result of their illicit union was conception.  But not just one baby.  Two.  Twins.  As they were in the process of being born, there is a bit of a mix-up.  One appears to be born, only to have the other one come first.  That results in their names.  The first was named Perez.  His born, born afterward, was called Zerah.

Now in itself this is an interesting story, of course.  This is not the usual kind of birth.  Perhaps that is the reason we might think it is included here.

But that would not be quite right.  Yes, it is an usual story, but there is far greater reason why the entire chapter is included in the Bible.

This about where this chapter comes in Genesis.  What do we read about in chapter 37?  Joseph–his dreams and his slavery in Egypt.  What do we read about in chapter 39?  Joseph again–this time what happens to him in Egypt.  And what do you suppose we would read about in chapter 38?  Joseph again? 

Wrong.

We begin to read about Judah and Tamar.  An unexpected story.  Totally unexpected. 

And not only in the flow of Genesis.  It is also an unexpected story as included in Matthew 1.  Matthew 1 begins with these words: The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ . . .  In other words, this chapter is about through whom Jesus came into the world.  And we read of the usuals.  Here is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and David.  The patriarchs.  The kings.  Great men.  Even great men of faith.  We would expect to find the like in the line of the Messiah.  

But what happens in verse3?  Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar . . .  Who would expect this story of sinful behavior?  Who would expect this unexpected story of an unexpected woman?  Why would our God include this story in the line of Jesus?

Think about it.  The contrast between the perfect Son of God and this sin-filled story could hardly be greater.  Judah’s sons sin, one after another.  Judah himself sins, not once, but twice.  Tamar too does not escape sin.  She may not be the one who is primarily responsible, but she still did what was wrong.

Sin, sin, sin.  Why include Tamar in the line of our Savior?!

The answer, my friends, has everything to do with Christmas. 

There is the possibility, I suppose, that we come to disassociate Jesus from where he came from.  Or should I say, who he came from.  As though there was Mary with child and then came Jesus–with little thought of how God was bringing the Messiah through the Old Testament.  As though Bethlehem was the beginning of the story.

It was not.  To forget about that Old Testament would be a very serious error.  Because not only does that long line . . . that long line of sinners . . . teach us about God promise keeping, it also teaches us about God’s grace.

In what greater fashion could God tell us that we do not deserve a Savior than in this story from Genesis 38?  The story is filled from first to last with reasons why God should forget about saving humanity.  We take things into our own hands.  Thinking we know better than God what would be best with our lives–just as Judah did.  We scheme–trying to bring about justice by our own means–as Tamar did.  We give in to temptation, time and time again–just as Judah did, in a land where he thought no one knew him, with a woman he thought no one would ever find out about.  We even put on the airs of self-righteousness–pretending as though we are righteously indignant at others’ sins–when in fact we may have carefully disguised, carefully covered up, our own.

Who desires a Savior?!  Who dares stand up this morning and say, I have escaped the snares of sin.  I am righteous before God.  I am no Tamar.  I am no Judah.

Anyone?

The Bible tells us this morning not one of us escapes.  Or as Romans says, there is none righteous.  No not one.  We are sinners no less than those we have read about this morning.    

But listen, my friends, for the good news this morning.  If God could save through Judah and Tamar he can also save you and me.  The good news for us this morning is that God can bring righteousness out of unrighteousness.  He can bring salvation from sinners for sinners.  That God’s power is greater than our sin.

And that is why God puts Judah and Tamar in the line of our Savior.  Not because they deserved to be.  Everything about their story tells us they did not.  But to remind us that they, like us, are saved apart from what we deserve.

As you prepare for Christmas this year, think about what you deserve.  I know, usually that sort of pondering is met with what gifts we have requested.  But really, now, think about what you deserve from God.  Do you deserve to know him?  Do you deserve to have his Son in your place? 

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE #2

A Shady Lady (of Faith)
Matt. 1:1-5a, Joshua 2:1-24

 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Last week we were surprised by who God includes in the line of Christ.  Tamar, or all people.  The living, breathing illustration of a sinful life.  She, along with the other characters in Genesis 38, illustrated for us that God saves sinners.

In fact when we look forward to the time when Christ came, we see such was precisely God’s desire.  God sent his Son into this world to saves sinners.  Or as Jesus himself said,  Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Are you sick with sin?  Then God calls us to the baby in Bethlehem as the cure.

But God not only calls those who know they are sinners.

The next woman mentioned in the line of Christ was a sinner.  She was a prostitute.  But what comes to the fore in Joshua 2 is not her sin.  That is mentioned only in identifying her.  What is far more important is her faith.  This morning we learn that those of faith belong to the line of Christ.

1. The Act of Faith (vv. 1-7) 

The account of Joshua 2 opens with two spies on the way to Jericho to spy out the land of Canaan.  Remember, at this point, the people of Israel were out in the desert.  God had told them the land of Canaan would be theirs, it was only a matter of time before the promise would turn into reality.  Jericho was the first place the spies would come to in as they checked out the land.  It stood, you might say, as the entrance point to Canaan.  It stood guard over the rest of the land.  So, quite naturally, it would be expected to be the first city to be taken.

And the Canaanites knew this.  The Israelites would not be the first foreign people to come into the land to try and take it over.  It had happened before.  So the Canaanites had reinforced over and over again this guard city.

Now it is important for us to note one thing, before we look at what happened when these two spies entered Jericho.  Jericho, like all of the other cities in Canaan at this time, had a government onto itself.  It was not just a city. No, it had its own king, its own army, its own law.  So what happened in the city was especially important.  If there was some disturbance, word was sent to some army commander many miles away . . . no, each city took care of itself.  So each city was always on the lookout for threats against it.

So these two spies came to Jericho.  They came, of course, to see what Jericho was like.  Where its strengths lay, and where it was most vulnerable to attack.  What they found, history would tell us, was a city unlike any city they had ever seen before.  It was an impressive city–with high walls around it.  Walls thick enough to support houses built on those walls.  Not the sort of walls that were easily penetrated.  Further it was a highly advanced city.  The ruins of Jericho tell us it had cobbled streets with a drainage system that flowed beneath.  It had access to fresh water–which would discourage any enemy from laying siege to the city.

It is altogether likely that by the time the two spies arrived at the home of Rahab, they had the impression Jericho would not be an easy city to take.

But they did come to Rahab’s home.  Or, we might more accurately describe it as a cross between a brothel and a cheap motel.  We don’t know why the spies would chose her home, specifically, to stay at.  But we can say it appeared to be a rather smart move.  After all, it was likely that few people would question the appearance of two strange men at her home.  Men were likely coming and going all the time.  In the midst of the coming and going, how would two more bring any further attention?!

But we read in verse 2 that somehow, someone found out that these two men were from the Israelites. Perhaps it was the way they spoke.  Or the clothes they were wearing.  Or it might even have been their unfamiliarity with the ways of the brothel.  Something gives them away. 

And word is sent to the king of Jericho.

And the king wants the spies caught.  So verse 3 reads, So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country."

Now at this point, friends, it is important for us to pause for a moment and think about Rahab’s choices.  She has but two.  On the one hand, she can simply give up the spies to the king.  After all, she hardly knows these two men.  They are not, what you might call, friends.  They are barely acquaintances.  Further, as I pointed out earlier, we could understand if Rahab thought, these Israelites don’t have any chance against Jericho, anyway!  What’ the point to hiding them?  They are from a little desert wandering tribe–and they are going to take over big, bad Jericho?!  Not a chance! 

That should have been Rahab’s attitude if she were only looking on the appearance of things.  But her actions showed that she was not.  There was something far greater, far deeper, in operation in her.  Faith in God was in action.

This is what Rahab does.  She tells the king’s men that the spies were indeed at her house but have now gone on their way.  In fact she goes so far as to tell them they had better hurry if they expect to catch up with the spies.  At the same time the she had hidden the spies on her roof.  There were stalks of flax on her roof drying–nothing unusual about that.  But she had the spies lie under the flax–the perfect hideout.

Again, I must point out that what Rahab did was more than an act of kindness.  Yes, it was kind.  But it was motivated by faith.  We know that not only from what we read in the following verses, but James 2:25 also makes that plain.  There we read, Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?  Justified by works does not mean Rahab was made right with God because she hid two spies.  But what it does mean is that Rahab had more than words.  She had a faith that acted.  It was a justifying faith.  That is, a faith that show itself by hiding two men she knew little about under flax on her roof.

She did an act of faith.

2. The Confession of Faith (vv. 8-14)

That leads us secondly, to what we might call Rahab’s confession of faith.  This seems to be the part of the story that is central.  Everything else in the passage revolves around how Rahab explains to the spies what she has just done.

We read about this confession in verses 8-14.  It is a confession of faith based on who God is.  In fact, all true faith is based on this same thing–God.  All faith begins with God.  There are three things about God that Rahab cites in her confession.

The first is found in verse 10.  For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

Word of what the God had done had preceded the Israelites.  The Rahab had heard about what God had done at the Red Sea and others who had opposed his purposes.  Her response of faith, in other words, was not based on a blind leap of faith.  It was not a “factless” faith.  It was based on what God had done.

She knew of God might because of God’s history.  She knew what God would do to Jericho because of what he had done to those who opposed him in the past.  This, we should say, was the basis of her faith. 

In fact we can say that every true faith is based upon what we know what God has done.  True faith is a factual faith.  It has some knowledge, some data, some evidence.  Faith is more than these, of course, but it is at least these.

Rahab knew this well.  Unfortunately, it sometimes appears, we do not.  Today many who call themselves Christians speak as those the Christian faith really has no more truth content than any other faith.  It is a personal preference, not a necessity driven by what God has done.  People speak of loving God, or being in love with God, but having little idea about who God is, or what he has done.

This was pointed out to me very clearly this past week in an article I read in World magazine.  It was about a survey of self-confessed “born-again” Christians.  Note: these were not main line Christians.  These were those who would definitely be considered more conservative than liberal.  Among these surveyed, 26 percent believed that all religions were basically the same.  Fifty percent believe a life of good works will get you to heaven.  And more than one in three said they did not believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead.

Is that real faith?  That is not the faith of the Bible.  Nor was it the faith of Rahab.  She knew what God had done.

Secondly, Rahab’s confession of faith showed that she believed the God of the Bible is the only true God.  Verse 11 says And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

Not only did Rahab know what God had done, she also knew he was the only one able to do such things.  He is the only God, she says.  This essentially the same thing the Israelites were to confess in Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!  Or as another translation has it: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

What a remarkable confession for a woman living in Jericho!  This required a major shift in her thinking.  We have every reason to believe Jericho was a very religious place.  Like her culture around her, Rahab had probably believed in multiple gods.  There were different gods for different parts of life.

But now what she was confessing was that all of these other gods were not gods at all.  In fact there were no other gods beside the one true God.  She is acknowledging not only that God is, and what he has done.  She is also pointing to the absolute supremacy of God.

Which bring us to the third part of Rahab’s confession of faith.  That is what we read about in verses 12-13.  There we find: Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.

Notice the mercy of God which comes to clearly through in what she says.  Rahab points very clearly not only to that God out there somewhere, she now sees the connection between that God and herself.  She needs God.  She needs his mercy.

Rahab not only needs to know the truth about God, she also needs to escape the coming judgment of God.  It will only be a few chapters later in Joshua that we read of the Israelites coming to take Jericho.  But everything about that taking tells us it is not the men who take the city, it is God.  So it is God who must provide mercy when that judgment comes.

No less than it is necessary for God to provide mercy for all.  True faith recognizes that, in ourselves, we have no right to ask God for anything.  If faith is nothing more than a bargain we work out with God . . . we give a little, God gives a little . . . then we are all in trouble.  Any true look at ourselves makes it clear we rely upon God’s mercy.  Faith is a giving ourselves over to that mercy.

More than anything else in this confession of faith, that pleading upon God’s mercy is what marks Rahab’s faith.  It is for this reason as well that Rahab is called to our attention as one who had great faith in Hebrews 11.  Verse 31: By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

Again, the point of what Rahab says to the spies should be clear to us by this time.  She believed.  She had a faith that was based on real content.  She had a faith that recognized God as the only true God.  And she had a faith in which she gave herself over to the mercy of this God. 

May God grant each one of us that same kind of faith.

3. The Confidence of Faith (vv. 15-24)

Which brings us to the final part of this chapter, verses 15-24.  Here we find the encouragement of faith.

After this confession of faith in God, the two spies make an agreement with Rahab about the future.  There is no longer any doubt in their minds, or in the mind of Rahab about whether or not God will give them the land.  He will.

It is based on that confidence that Rahab can make the following arrangement with the spies.  When the spies come with the other Israelites to take the city Jericho–as they certainly will–then they must be certain to allow a way of escape for Rahab.  She now lets them down on a rope over the outside of the wall.  So also when they come they must look for a scarlet cord in a window.  That will mark the place where Rahab is.  And not only are they willing to save Rahab, must even those in her house will be saved if they are there.

Think again of the faith in God it took for Rahab to make this arrangement with the spies.  There was little indication the Israelites had the power to take Jericho.  From all external appearances the people of Jericho would even be able to wait out a siege if it came to that.  We might even suppose that the people of Jericho have a far greater military might than the nomadic Israelites. 

And yet what do we find?  Rahab scoffing at the notion of an Israelite victory?  Did she pat the spies on the back and tell them that the thought of capturing Jericho was nice but it will never happen?  Or did she simply take them up on the offer just in case it happened to be true?

Again, none of that appears to be true.  Rahab actually believed that what the spies said would happen.  Not because it was the spies who said so, but because of the God who had sent the spies.  Rahab had the confidence that only faith could bring.  It is no wonder then, that Hebrews 11 begins describing faith with these words, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  That is to say, faith is certain about the outcome, even when the eyes can not see.  When the mind would say it is not possible!  When the doubters say you are a fool.