Two years ago we moved into a nice little house on a nice little street surrounded by empty lots. Today there are nine houses with two more underway. Since we are on a cul-de-sac, the construction of each of these homes has been up close and personal, but also fascinating as we watch the homes take shape. Now, as each neighbor family moves in and gets settled, our little street is coming to life with a great variety or people: tele-commuters, retired folks, parents with babies and young children, natives from the area, people who moved here from another part of the country.

Have you ever noticed that God’s highest and best for us usually involves growth and change, whereas our natural preferences run toward peace and security? Have you also noticed that, though He loves us “with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3) and has “given us everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3), He doesn’t consult us before He upends our life?

You probably recognize these passages as snippets of genealogical material. For many people, genealogies are Scripture’s ultimate throw-away lines and responsible for wrecking countless thru-the-Bible reading programs just as they are getting started. I get that. But it might be helpful to look at them another way.

I have marked many Holy Week observances and celebrated many Easter mornings. I was sure I had all the pertinent information and insights about this most sacred time. But recently I saw something that I had never noticed. (Perhaps you, too, have experienced that “when did they put that there” feeling?)

“Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumblin’ down.” Negro spiritual

When her story begins in Joshua 2, Rahab is just your typical big-city pagan harlot, living in one of the most depraved and idolatrous cultures in recorded history. The city was Jericho of the Canaanites and these were not their best days. Jericho’s nervous residents knew that the upstart Israelites were headed their way with conquest on their minds. That partly explains why Rahab was not surprised to see the two Hebrew spies doing reconnaissance, then agreed to hide them from the king’s men.

Take one godly man and His devout family, a humongous boat, all kinds of animals and tons and tons (literally) of rain. What do you have? The story or Noah, of course. People who have never darkened the door of a church or cracked open a Bible could probably tell us that. It might be the most familiar story in Scripture.