Sometimes God chooses unlikely characters to accomplish His purposes. In fact, sometimes

these biblical heroes seem unfit for greatness. For example, a young shepherd boy who would

become the king of Israel, or the stammering Moses who would lead his people through the wilderness.

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck's Wendell describes one of the most surprising choices

of all in the Bible. Just before the Jewish people entered the Promised Land, God appointed

a prostitute to protect two Hebrew spies. Chuck used a question to title today's message.

Are spies and lies okay in God's eyes?

The prophet writes, if you're not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you,

I will help you, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. And elsewhere,

writes, I will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.

Interesting in the Hebrew it says, I will keep him in Shalom, Shalom, peace, peace, perfect

peace. My hope is for you today to know that kind of inner peace, which is possible regardless

of what happens externally, there can be an inner, perfect peace that comes in a relationship

with God's Son, Jesus Christ. And we long for that for all of you, every one of you.

I'm reading for you today from Joshua chapter 2. It's a lengthy chapter and therefore I'm going to

read excerpts from it, hopefully not disturbing the flow of the narrative but keeping our eyes focused

on the event. This is a very unusual chapter as you will hear. It revolves around a most unusual

person that you rarely will read about anywhere. And here she comes to the forefront and we learn

about her and what she did. Her name is Rahab. I'll be reading from the new living translation. Verse 1 begins,

then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Akasha Grove. He instructed them

scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho. So the two

men set out and came to the house of Rahab, the prostitute, and stayed there that night. But someone

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