Women with a Story to Tell: Rahab 2

 And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, for the rest of the story. 

 “Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer side of the city wall and she resided within the wall itself. She said to them, “Go toward the hill country, so that the pursuers may not come upon you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; then afterward you may go your way.” (Joshua 2:15-16).

 Rahab has hosted and hid the spies that Joshua sent to Jericho. They did their work, and then Rahab sent them on their way. They arrived back at camp safely. Their parting words reveal the agreement that she negotiated. She made them swear an oath to protect her and her family.

 “The men said to her, ‘We will be released from this oath that you have made us swear to you if we invade the land and you do not tie this crimson cord in the window through which you let us down and you do not gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your family. If any of you go out of the doors of your house into the street, they shall be responsible for their own death, and we shall be innocent, but if a hand is laid upon any who are with you in the house, we shall bear the responsibility for their death. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be released from this oath that you made us swear to you’. She said, ‘According to your words, so be it’. She sent them away, and they departed. Then she tied the crimson cord in the window” (Joshua 2: 17-21).

 Why did Rahab do this? She declared her faith that Yahweh was with Israel and that Yahweh was the one true God. 

 Joshua was pleased with the information that the spies brought concerning the fear in the land and the likelihood that Jericho could be defeated (Joshua 2: 22-24). Then, when they told their story, Joshua confirmed their covenant with Rahab. When the walls fell down, Joshua and the spies lived up to the oath that they had taken. 

 “But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, ‘Go into the prostitute’s house, and bring the woman out of it and all who belong to her, as you swore to her’. So the young men who had been spies went in and brought Rahab out, along with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all who belonged to her—they brought all her kindred out—and set them outside the camp of Israel. They burned down the city and everything in it; only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho” (Joshua 6: 22-25).

 This is a strange story, isn’t it? Her apartment was within the wall, so how did she and her family even survive if the whole wall fell down? That is an example of a question that we can ask, but we cannot answer. Get used to it.

 Why is this story included in the book of Joshua? Why do preachers and Sunday School teachers only tell us about the marching and trumpeting that led to God bringing the walls of Jericho crashing down? Cute, isn’t it, when we teach our children to sing: “And the walls came tumbling DOWN!” Cute, but it misses the point about faith. 

 First, Matthew reveals to us that, along with Tamar, Rahab is in the line of Jesus. 

“Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, … and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. (Matthew 1: 2-6). 

 But that is not the end of the Rahab story. The writer of the book of Hebrews lists the heroes of faith, beginning with Abraham and Sarah, then Moses, and then … Rahab! 

  “By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace” (Hebrews 11: 30-31).

 Interesting that the writer of Hebrews does not mention the faith of Joshua, or of the spies, or of the Israelites marching around the wall. Out of all of this story, the writer picks the Canaanite prostitute Rahab to make his point.

Later, James, the brother of our Lord who wrote the book of James, picks up the theme about the most faithful people of old. James begins with Abraham but then includes only one other person from the Old Testament.  

 “Thus, the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.  (James 2: 23-26). 

 According to James, Rahab was a person of real fire-tested faith. Rahab’s story is much bigger than we give her credit for. She is important in the history of Israel because Jericho was the first city to fall when Joshua and the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. She is significant in the genealogy of King David and thus she is an ancestor of Jesus. And, finally, she is held up by two different New Testament writers as a prime example of faith that works. 

 Why have we suppressed her story? Perhaps because she is a woman. Further, she is not an Israelite, she is a Canaanite, the ancestors of today’s Palestinians. What’s more, she was a prostitute, but she found faith and, though she was an outsider, a member of an enemy group, she became a naturalized alien in Israel’s society. Male leaders in the church can’t get over this story, so they suppress it. That's the way things work.