Chapter4: Rahab
IN THE LAST CHAPTER we focused on the continuity of the national portion of the Abrahamic Covenant as it flowed down to the time of Joshua and beyond. Is there anything in the crucial moment of history in which Joshua lived that can show us the continuity of the spiritual blessing? Indeed there is: Rahab the harlot.
THE SPIES’ PERSPECTIVE
While the Israelites were camped at Shittim, Joshua sent two spies across the Jordan. “And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there” (Josh. 2:1). Why did the two spies go to a harlot’s house? The answer is simple: They went where they could easily “get lost,” where they could find shelter with some degree of freedom. There is no place like a harlot’s house for people coming and going. There is no indication whatever that they went there for any immoral purpose; this simply does not exist in the story.
Rahab gave the spies two things. First, she gave them shelter. They were filled with thankfulness that she had hid them and saved their lives, not only because they escaped personally, but because her help made possible the success of their venture. Second, she spoke the words that provided the key to the spies’ report to Joshua:
And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint [literally, melt] because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. (Josh. 2:9-11)
In this remarkable statement Rahab verbalized the truth to these two spies. The spies came to a most unlikely place, and the words of this woman told them exactly what the situation was.
There was a parallel event in the life of Gideon. God told Gideon that Gideon would save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, and Gideon asked for two different signs to confirm this. After responding to Gideon’s request, God gave him one more sign that he did not ask for. God told him to go down at night to the camp of the Midianites. So Gideon went down with his servant. Standing on the periphery of the camp, they heard two Midianites talking:
And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host. And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. (Judg. 7:13-15)
As with the two spies and Rahab, what Gideon heard gave encouragement through the words of an enemy. This conversation convinced him of the final outcome, thus enabling him to say with courage, “There is no question that we are going to be victorious.” From the mouth of somebody on “the other side” came a verbalization that completely settled the situation.
The spies had real faith. For when they responded to Rahab’s request, they told her that her life would be saved “when the LORD hath given us the land” (Josh. 2:14). Not if but when. These men understood that God’s promises were going to stand sure. Their faith was a complete contrast to the doubts of the ten spies at the time of Moses.
Also a great contrast to the failure of thirty-eight years before was the reply the two men gave to Joshua: “Truly the LORD hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us” (Josh. 2:24). This sounds almost exactly like what Joshua and Caleb had said. The two spies sent to Jericho were faithful, not just in the sense of having good eyes, but in the sense of believing the promises of God.
RAHAB’S PERSPECTIVE
Rahab was a harlot in a heathen land. Some people have been embarrassed by this and have tried to tone it down, but it is impossible to do so. That is what she really was. It is the only thing the Hebrew word in Joshua 2:1 can mean.
When she had the men in her house, Rahab asked them:
Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the LORD hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may ye go your way. And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee. And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear. And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window. (Josh. 2:12-21).
There is no mention here of husband or children. Those designated to be saved are of her “father’s household.” Verse 18 shows that none of her family lived with her. This is consistent with the word Scripture uses to describe her. Later, when Jericho was taken, whom did the spies bring out? “Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren . . . all her kindred . . . Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household” (Josh. 6:23, 25). We miss the whole point of the story, therefore, if we become embarrassed and soften it. Rahab was a harlot in a heathen land.
But Rahab had two things going for her. First, she had heard something propositional. She had heard what had happened in space-time history when the Hebrews came out of Egypt and when they had fought against Sihon and Og, two nearby powers.
Second, in her presence were two spies who represented to her the whole Israelite nation. This is one reason why it was important that the two men did not go to her because she was a harlot. To her they were representatives of God’s people. And they did not waver in their faith before this woman (Josh. 2:14). What she had was the message and the tangible contact with two spies.
Surrounding Rahab, however, was a hostile and awesome environment: Jericho, the mighty fortress, with its great walls. Jericho had stood for hundreds of years; it was impregnable, or so its inhabitants thought. So, though Rahab had heard a propositional message, and though she had the two spies standing before her, she was still surrounded by a monolithic mentality, an entire worldview. She was pressured by a powerful city and an ancient culture continuing on in its normal life—eating, drinking, marrying, and so forth. At that moment she could see nothing with her eyes that indicated it would fall.
What did Rahab do? In the midst of this tension, she believed. This is the crux of the story. “I know that the LORD hath given you the land,” she said. “The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath” (Josh. 2:9, 11). Her statement about God was universal and total.
How did she know that? We are not told. Often in Scripture we find that people knew things, though we are not told how they came to know them. But Rahab knew! And what she knew was totally against her culture. She believed in a new God, a God totally and diametrically opposed to the gods of Jericho, but a God above all other gods, the universal God. In the midst of the Canaanites, the Ammonites, the Amorites—in the midst of their horrible, polluted worship, laden with sex symbols and sex practices—Rahab affirmed a true theological proposition about who God really is.
Abraham in his day believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Joshua also made a personal choice: “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood [that is, on the other side of the Euphrates], or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Josh. 24:15). Rahab stood in exactly the same position. Surrounded by those who worshiped the Canaanite and Amorite gods, she made her decision: “By an act of the will, on the basis of the knowledge that I have, I declare in faith that God is the God of heaven above and the earth beneath. He is the universal God.”
Peter preached to the Jews on Pentecost that the covenant was fulfilled in the coming of Christ but that each person had to believe individually. As Paul preached throughout the Roman Empire, non-Jews began to believe. At the time of Joshua, Rahab stood in the stream of the spiritual portion of the covenant as a believing non-Jew. She stood where the Gentiles stood in the New Testament when they first believed the gospel in Antioch. She stood exactly where most Christians stand today, for most of us are non-Jewish believers.
This non-Jew believed and passed from the kingdom of the Amorites to the kingdom of the Jews. But she did something much more profound than exchanging one human citizenship for another. She also passed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s dear Son. The book of Hebrews makes a tremendous statement about Rahab, paralleling her to other heroes of the faith: “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31). There were those who did not believe, but she did believe; so she did not perish. More than this, she became something that not all the Jews were, because, as we have seen, not all the Jews were spiritual Jews. Many who stood in the natural line of the covenant never partook of the spiritual blessings because they did not make Rahab’s choice. So curiously enough, she who had been a non-Jewish heathen suddenly became not only a part of the nation of Israel but also a part of the true Israel. With one act of faith, she stepped into the nation and beyond many of the Jews themselves to become a member of spiritual Israel.
THE SCARLET CORD
In Joshua 2 we also find the interesting story of the scarlet cord. This cord, on which Rahab let the spies escape from her house, was also to be the mark upon her house to show that she was different from the other people. Joshua 2:21 says that the spies departed, and she hung the scarlet line in her window. It seems to me that her prompt action indicates that she did not want time to pass without that mark upon her house. So we can imagine her, after she let the spies down, pulling up the rope and tying it to her window.
In the preaching of the Christian church, all the way back to Clement of Rome (perhaps earlier, but we do not know), this cord has been taken as a sign of the blood of Christ, the Lamb. One should not be dogmatic about it because the Bible does not explicitly make this connection; nevertheless, many in the church have emphasized over the centuries that the scarlet cord was a mark of something beyond itself.
Because she placed this mark upon her house, she dwelt in safety. This clearly paralleled the Passover lamb. The Israelites killed the lamb, put its blood on their houses, and then were perfectly safe as the angel of death passed over Egypt. The mark of the blood covered them and their households. The Passover lamb, of course, was looking forward to the coming Messiah. So there is, after all, a parallel between the cord and the blood of the Lamb.
We can imagine Rahab rushing out and gathering all her family into her house upon the city wall. We can imagine her going through the city and calling out, “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Come under the mark of the scarlet cord!” Lot did the same thing in Sodom, you remember, but without success. He went throughout the city, trying to gather in his family, including his sons-in-law. But they refused and laughed at him; so they died in the city’s destruction. In the days of Noah, those who were gathered into the ark were safe. In Jericho Rahab’s family, gathered in the house marked by the scarlet cord, were safe.
We see the spiritual element of the covenant blessing flowing on. When the children of Israel were about to leave Egypt, they were given the blood of the Passover lamb under which to be safe. When the people were about to enter the land, they were met by a different but parallel sign—a red cord hanging from the window of a believer.
FAITH IN ACTION
The Bible expressly says that Rahab demonstrated her faith by her works. The spies did not take her away with them. She had to remain in the kingdom of the Amorites between the time when she declared her allegiance to the living God and the time when judgment fell. In Joshua 2 we are reminded forcefully that there was a king in Jericho; and if he had known what had occurred, undoubtedly he would have killed Rahab in the cruelest fashion he could have devised. “And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house” (Josh. 2:3). Here was war—war between the king of Jericho and the king of the Jews; that is, between the king of Jericho and God.
In the book of James, Rahab is the only person paralleled to Abraham: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? . . . Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” (Jas. 2:21, 25). To properly exegete the book of James, we need to understand that Abraham had faith, but it was a faith open to demonstration. In fact, it was demonstrated at a tremendous cost: He was willing to trust God and to offer his son. Rahab, too, had a faith that had teeth in it, structure to it, strength in it. She was willing to suffer loss to demonstrate that her faith was valid.
This woman Rahab stood alone in faith against the total culture surrounding her—something none of us today in the Western world has ever yet had to do. For a period of time she stood for the unseen against the seen, standing in acute danger until Jericho fell. If the king had ever found out what she had done, he would have become her chief enemy and would have executed her.
Just before the Israelites came out of Egypt, they sacrificed the Passover lamb. They did it with “loins girded, [their] shoes on [their] feet, and [their] staff in [their] hand” (Ex. 12:11), and they became pilgrims. One cannot partake of the Passover lamb without being ready to see the world as a place of pilgrimage and war. Rahab is an even greater illustration of our position, because until Jericho fell, she lived as a pilgrim surrounded by her old alien culture.
This is exactly how the Christian lives, and Rahab is a tremendous example for us. Though you and I have stepped from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, we are still surrounded by a culture controlled by God’s great enemy, Satan. We must live in it from the moment we accept Christ as our Savior until judgment falls. We, too, are encompassed by one who was once our king but is now our enemy. It is just plain stupid for a Christian not to expect spiritual warfare while he lives in enemy territory.
RAHAB: ANCESTOR OF CHRIST
But there is even more to Rahab’s story of the spiritual continuity of the covenant. Joshua 6:25 says of Rahab: “She dwelleth in Israel even unto this day.” She lived the rest of her life as a citizen among God’s people. Not only that, she married among these people and became an ancestor of Jesus Christ!
Study the genealogy of Jesus as Matthew records it: “And Nahshon begat Salmon; and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; and Jesse begat David, the king” (Matt. 1:4-6). David, of course, was a forebear of Christ.
Rahab’s position is mentioned by implication in the book of Ruth: “Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez begat Hezron, and Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Boaz [of Rahab, as Matthew says], and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David” (Ruth 4:18-22). (See also the parallel in 1 Chronicles 2, especially 2:11-12.)
The book of Numbers provides a key to Nahshon’s identity. When the tabernacle was raised in the days of Moses (about thirty-nine years before the events involving Rahab), twelve princes came, one from each tribe, and made a special offering.
The first one who came was of the tribe of Judah: “And he that offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah” (Num. 7:12). So Nahshon was a great prince of the tribe of Judah, and his son Salmon married Rahab. Chronologically, it fits; the timing is just right. Isn’t that tremendous? The harlot who became a believer became the wife of a prince of Judah!
Unhappily, some people ask, “But is it fitting that this woman should become a princess and an ancestor of Christ?” I would reply with all the strength that is in me: It is most fitting! In having been unfaithful to the Creator, is not the whole human race a harlot? Indeed, it is most fitting that Rahab should stand in the ancestral line of Christ. Matthew mentions five women in the genealogy he records, and moral charges were brought against every one of them. Jesus Christ did not come from a sinless human line. All, including Mary, needed the Savior. Even she said, “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:47). All the men and all the women in the ancestral line of Christ needed Christ as their Savior.
After all, Rahab did not stand with the people of God as an unclean harlot. She had come under the blood of the coming Christ; she was the harlot cleansed. Is Rahab any worse than we? If it is not fitting that she should be the ancestress of Christ, is it fitting that we should be the bride of Christ? Woe to anybody who has such a mentality as to be upset by Rahab! Such a person does not understand sin, the horribleness of the whole race turning into a prostitute against the living Creator.
We all stand in Rahab’s place in the sight of the holy God. Probably we are even worse, for she had little knowledge. There is probably no one reading this book who has as little knowledge as Rahab had when she made her step of faith. We are all sinners. Each one of us is like this woman living up there on the wall. Each of us deserves only one thing—the flaming judgment of God. If it were not for the spiritual portion of the covenant of grace and Christ’s death on Calvary’s cross, we would all be lost.
If we do not cast ourselves upon Christ and his finished work, then we are not as wise as that harlot in a heathen land. We are under the judgment of God and will stay under it until we do what Rahab did. She believed. She came under the work of the real Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ. And she passed from the midst of unredeemed humanity to redeemed humanity on the basis of his blood.
So it always is. Jesus Christ stands before all men in one of two capacities (there is no third): Either he is Savior, or he is judge. When he stood as captain of the Lord’s host, for one woman and her household he was Savior; for the rest of Jericho, he was judge.
Let those of us who have believed in Christ ask God to help us so that our works will prove our faith, even if this means a threat to us, even if this places us in as much danger as it did Rahab. By God’s grace, may our faith have such a structure that even if it is at great cost, even if we are facing danger, we stand fast. Many thousands of our brothers and sisters in Christ are this day facing danger. The great persecutions did not just occur in the past in the land of Caesar. In North Korea, Africa, Vietnam, Laos, and other places, Christians have been killed for being Christians. And many more are not always physically killed, but “killed” by being alienated from their own families.
It is hazardous to be a Christian in an age like ours, in a culture that is increasingly alienated from God. But if we have believed, even if we are surrounded and threatened by the kingdom of our previous king, the evil one, may our faith be like Rahab’s, observable by courage and by works. Rahab blazes abroad as a tremendous example for all of us.