Volume 18: The Underdogs of Life

Day 122 Devotional

THE UNDERDOGS OF LIFE

People often notice that I usually side with the underdog.

The overlooked.
The ones who suffered more.
The ones who acquired less.
The ones who never fit into the “in crowd.”

So I naturally open my heart and my doors wider to people like that. I show them added favor because pain teaches you how to recognize pain.

Maybe that is why the story of Rahab encourages me so deeply.

A WOMAN SOCIETY DISQUALIFIED

Rahab was a prostitute.
Not royalty.
Not respected.
Not celebrated.
Not chosen by society.

She lived in Jericho, a city marked for judgment. Yet somehow, this broken woman recognized God faster than religious people often do today.

Rahab told the spies, “For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11).

That statement is powerful because Rahab believed before she belonged.

Isn’t it interesting how, unlike people today, she did not have a “what’s in it for me” mentality?

FAITH BEFORE FULL UNDERSTANDING

Rahab risked her own life by hiding the spies because she believed God was real before she fully understood Him.

And God honored her faith.
“By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not…” (Hebrews 11:31).

God did not merely spare Rahab from destruction.
He rewrote her entire future.

THE BLOODLINE OF A KING

What shocks me is this, Rahab eventually married Salmon from the tribe of Judah.

Together they had a son named Boaz. Boaz became the kinsman redeemer who married Ruth. Boaz and Ruth gave birth to Obed. Obed fathered Jesse. And Jesse fathered King David.

Scripture says, “And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab…” (Matthew 1:5).

That means Rahab, the former prostitute from Jericho, became part of the bloodline of Jesus Christ Himself.

Think about that. Everybody saw a prostitute. God saw a mother in the lineage of a King.

So, no matter the frailty, mistakes, and scarlet letter of your past, faith in God transforms you into a new creature.

JESUS AND THE REJECTED

Why would God allow Rahab into the genealogy of Christ?

Because Jesus did not come only for the powerful. He came for the pushed aside.
The labeled. The disqualified.
The ones history tried to bury.

That hits differently when you descend from people once sold on auction blocks. People renamed by oppression.
People treated like property instead of image bearers.

Rahab’s story reminds us that God has always stepped into broken histories and pulled greatness out of suffering.

The same society that labels people “unworthy” is often blind to what God is building.

THE SCARLET CORD

Rahab hung a scarlet cord from her window during judgment (Joshua 2:18).

That scarlet cord points us to Jesus Christ. Mercy hanging in plain sight. Blood covering what should have been destroyed — like you and me.

Rahab’s house was saved by a scarlet covering. We are saved by the blood of Jesus.

Never let people’s labels become louder than God’s purpose in your life.