Faces of Grace: Mary
Mary was a young teen living in the town of Nazareth, in the hills of Galilee. She came from an impoverished but honorable family. Her family was descendants of Israel’s King David. She was trained in the Scriptures and knew that God had promised to send the Messiah, who would rescue the people of Israel and become their king.
Every Jewish girl dreamed of being the mother of the Messiah. Mary loved God and wanted to serve him with all of her heart, but she was just a young girl from a humble family, with no great expectations that her life was going to be any different from her mother’s or from that of the other women in her town.
Faces of Grace: Rahab
For 40 long and rigorous years, Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness. God delivered them from Egypt, helped them cross the Red Sea on dry ground, and defeated the enemies who tried to thwart their path to Canaan.Around 1400 B.C., the Israelites were about to enter the land promised to them by God. God appointed Joshua as the new leader of Israel. Before the Israelites entered Canaan, Joshua sent two spies to the land just west of the Jordan River, telling them to pay special attention to the formidable city of Jericho.The spies soon reached Jericho, a bustling, fortified city strategically situated in the plains of the Jordan valley. They blended in with the busy pedestrians outside the great city walls. Jericho’s massive fortifications were visibly impressive.