Chapter Seven - Joshua 2

Faith That Works!

        We now find ourselves in Joshua chapter two, where we read the story of a woman named Rahab. I’d like for you to read the full chapter on your own, but let me give an overview of the story.

        Three days before the planned entry into the Promised Land and just after he had gathered his leadership together to give them a pep talk, Joshua sent two men into the land as spies to do whatever it was that spies did in those days… I suppose to spy.

        Anyway… when they got to the city of Jericho they ended up at the doorstep of a prostitute named Rahab, whose house was attached to the wall that surrounded the city. Word got back to the king of Jericho that the men from the Israelite camp were in the city and that they were crashing at Rahab’s pad. This bothered the king, so he sent a detail to Rahab’s place to search for them. When they got there, Rahab lied to the detail, telling them that though the men had been there, she didn’t know who they were and that she thought they had already left the city.

        In truth though, the Israelite spies were hiding on the roof of Rahab’s house. That evening, before night-night sleepy time, Rahab went up to talk with the men on her roof. She told them that she had heard of the great things that God had done for the nation of Israel. She also said that she knew in her heart that their God was the God of heaven and earth. She declared that she in no way wanted to be on the wrong side of His wrath. She believed that if the Israelite people were to fight against Jericho, Jericho would lose.

        So, as a reward for hiding them from the king, she asked if she and her family could be spared from the upcoming onslaught. The spies told her that she would be spared as long as she gathered her family together in her house and tied a scarlet cord from her window overlooking the exterior of the city. Then the spies took a rope and let themselves out of that window, escaping back to the Israelite camp.

        This is an interesting story and I’ve heard it taught in various and sundry ways. I’ve even heard it taught as proof that lying, when it is to protect a servant of God, is allowable. I guess that preacher believes God has a sliding scale for right and wrong. I’ve also heard it taught by spiritually connecting the scarlet cord with the blood of Jesus, and that in Rahab’s act of putting the scarlet cord in her window she was identifying herself with God—just as we are to identify with Christ through His blood. I like that spiritual connection, but that’s not where I want to go in this study.

What interests me about this story are not the details, but the subject of the story, Rahab, a lying prostitute. Rahab is interesting to me for two reasons: 

Rahab’s Lineage

        First, in the New Testament book of Matthew chapter one, Matthew gives a list of the genealogy from Abraham to Joseph (the step-father of Jesus) showing Jesus’ legal right to the throne of David. Rahab is listed within that genealogy. That’s right—Rahab, a lying prostitute, is an ancestor of Jesus; she is the great-grandmother of King David.

        There are four women (excluding Mary) on that list of the ancestors of Jesus, and the other three are interesting as well:

Tamar: You might remember Tamar. She is the woman who in Genesis 38 had a dispute with her father-in-law and decided that in order to get back at him she’d veil herself as a prostitute and entice him to sleep with her. Then when she got pregnant from that liaison, she confronted him and disgraced him for sleeping with what he thought was a prostitute.

Ruth: The namesake for the book of Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Elimelech and Naomi. Elimelech and Naomi, as you may know, left Israel for Moab to seek relief from famine. Their sons married women from Moab (which was against God’s law). In Psalm 108:9, God refers to Moab as His “washpot,” which can better be translated today as His toilet. So, Ruth was a Moabite (or Gentile) woman from God’s toilet.

Bathsheba: Bathsheba was the woman with whom King David had an adulterous relationship. David tried to cover up that relationship by having Bathsheba’s husband killed, and then he took her as his wife. To this day David’s affair and how he handled it is one of the most embarrassing events in Israel’s history.

        I don’t know a whole lot about my ancestry, but when I talk about my family, I don’t usually go out of the way to bring up the skeletons in our closet. However Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, brings up several. Also, generally in the Biblical lists of genealogies only men are mentioned… so why did God choose to include four women in Matthew’s list, especially these four?

        I believe it’s to show us, in a practical way, how much God loves us. You see, you and I couldn’t pick our families; some of us were born into great and wonderful families with great heritages, others… not so great. Jesus could pick His family. He is the only person in the history of the earth who could choose whoever He wanted to be in His family line. And He chose a lying prostitute named Rahab! He also chose you! Despite the fact that you are an imperfect, unclean, and sometimes dim-witted person, He looked past that and saw something in you that He wanted to bring into His family.

John 15:16

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” 

Rahab’s Faith

        The second reason Rahab is interesting to me is the fact that she is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 (the chapter in the Bible commonly known as the faith chapter) as someone with great faith. Here is a list of the people in the great hall of faith: Abel (Adam’s son), Enoch (he never died, he was the first person to be raptured), Noah (of the ark fame), Abraham (the father of the nation of Israel), Sara (Abraham’s wife), Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Moses, and… “the harlot Rahab.” Remember the Sesame Street sketch “which of these things does not belong”? In this list of the great figures of faith, who stands out as a weird choice for the list?

        Here’s my point. We don’t know a whole lot about Rahab, just what is written here in Joshua and a few more small references in Matthew, Hebrews, and James. We don’t know much of anything about what happened to her after this story in Joshua, except that her life was spared, she married a guy named Salmon, and had a son named Boaz (who had a son named Jesse, who had a son named David, who became king). What we do know is that because of this story in Joshua, she is recorded as a giant of the faith. Why? Was it because she did what no other person could do? No, anybody could have hidden the spies just as effectively. Is it because she lied to the king of Jericho? No, God hates a lying tongue (Proverbs 6:17).

        The reason Rahab is a giant of the faith is because of what she said in Joshua 2:9-11:

 “I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. 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. 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.” 

        She believed that God was God, and that belief caused her to act. It wasn’t what she did, it was the motivation behind what she did. The act was important as James points out in his epistle (James 2:25), but as the book of Hebrews 11:31 points out, By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

        You too can be a Rahab. All it takes is faith. Believe that He is who He says He is, did what He says He did, and that He’ll do what He says He’ll do. That’s all… just faith… the rest will take care of itself!

        Below is the text from Joshua chapter two:

Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, "Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country." 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." Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut, when it was dark, that the men went out. Where the men went I do not know; pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them." (But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof.)

        Then the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords. And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men: "I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. 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 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. Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 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."

        So the men answered her, "Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the LORD has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you." Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall; she dwelt on the wall. And she said to them, "Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward you may go your way." So the men said to her: "We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household to your own home. So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear." Then she said, "According to your words, so be it."

        And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went to the mountain, and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them. So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over; and they came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, "Truly the LORD has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us."