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Rahab Without faith it is impossible to please God, because
anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those
who earnestly seek him. Michael Nekora The second chapter of Joshua describes the experience of two spies who had been sent to Jericho to learn what they could before the Israelites crossed Jordan and engaged the city’s inhabitants in battle. Here is the account: “Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. ‘Go, look over the land,’ he said, ‘especially Jericho.’ So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, ‘Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.’ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: ‘Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.’ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, ‘Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.’ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) … Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, ‘I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 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 Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family.’ ”—Joshua 2:1-6, 8-12, NIV Jericho is in the Jordan Valley, north of the Dead Sea, about 800 feet below sea level and five miles west of the Jordan River. It is one of the world’s oldest known settlements and one of the lowest cities in the world. The king of Jericho was more like a mayor or city manager. Apparently the cities in Canaan were somewhat independent of each other because this king did not ask for help from other kings to resist this formidable adversary coming against him from out of the wilderness. When Joshua became Israel’s leader at the death of Moses, God said to him: “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Joshua 1:5). With this kind of promise ringing in his ears, why did Joshua send out spies? He knew victory was certain. But he also knew one more thing: if he did not use the counsel, prudence, and strength that he had received from God, he would not succeed. Although he was depending on divine direction and power, he also knew it would be prudent to embark on an “intelligence gathering” expedition. His approach contains a lesson for us: We cannot expect success, either in things spiritual or temporal, unless we also exercise prudence. Although God is in charge of our experiences, we are workers together with God (2 Corinthians 6:1). Let us do everything as though success actually depended upon our own efforts knowing that any success achieved will be because of God’s overruling providence. Because the Jordan was relatively easy to cross at this point, Jericho was a popular rest stop for the many trade caravans that traveled between Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Phoenicia. Foreigners and strangers were frequently within the city; that may be why the spies felt bold enough to walk right in. But where would they spend the night? The logical place would be where strangers were welcome: a “bed and breakfast” operated by a woman named Rahab. Those who stayed there would bring the news of the day and would tell the woman what had happened to Israel over the last forty years. The reaction of almost everyone in the city was fear and dread. But Rahab came to the correct conclusion that Israel was serving the true God and that all other gods were false. When the spies came to her house, they found the only person in Jericho who was friendly to their nation. Rahab believed. Soon she showed she had more than belief. Rahab had faith. Undoubtedly the spies were not the only ones at her house that afternoon. Their manner of speech and accent probably betrayed their nationality; so a message soon got to the king that spies from Israel had entered the city. Rahab guessed what was happening so she hid the spies on her flat roof. It might seem strange that the king’s messengers did not just enter the house and search it. But in those days a woman’s living quarters were private and her privacy was not to be violated (Judges 4:17-21). Rahab hid the spies so there would be no obvious evidence of their presence to anyone who came to the door. Then she lied: “Yes, they were here, but they are gone now.” Lying Are there circumstances that justify lying? It’s one thing to say we should always tell the truth, but when we and others dependent upon us might suffer imprisonment or even death, might this be an exception to the general rule? How do we decide? We know how Rahab decided. She lied, and she did it convincingly. The king’s messengers went off toward Jordan hoping to catch the spies. Later that night she lowered the spies over the city wall using a rope and told them to flee in the opposite direction and hide several days in one of the many mountain caves. Some may think that because she lied, she became a great hero of faith: “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient” (Hebrews 11:31, NIV). “Was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?” (James 2:25, NIV). Nothing in either text praises Rahab because she lied. To say that she is listed as a hero of faith in Hebrews 11 because she lied would be to say that Abraham is listed because he lied about Sarah’s relationship to him, or that David is listed because he murdered the husband of a woman he wanted for himself. Lying is so easy. Cain was the son of parents who were created perfect. When God asked, “Where is your brother Abel?” he replied: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9, NIV). So how can we know under what circumstances it is justifiable to lie? In fact it is never justifiable! We have given up our own will to do the will of the heavenly Father. How do we know what that is? One way is to follow the pattern of Jesus who always did the will of his Father. If we do what he did, we may be sure we’re doing the Father’s will. And there is not one single instance where Jesus lied. Not one. This should not be surprising. His Father cannot lie: “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation” (Hebrews 6:18). Lying is part of the old man. The world thinks there are times when lying is appropriate, but it is never appropriate for the footstep followers of Christ. Even in the world, it is hardly the best policy. Who would want to live in a world where people lie as easily as they speak truth? Could Rahab have saved the spies without telling a lie? Based on the customs of her time, it would never have occurred to her to try. Within her culture she certainly had not been taught the value of speaking only the truth: “Strict truth, either in Jew or heathen, was a virtue so utterly unknown before the promulgation of the Gospel that, so far as Rahab is concerned, the discussion is quite superfluous.”—Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, McClintock & Strong, vol. 8, p. 881. Adam Clarke writes: “There is a lax morality in the world that recommends a lie rather than the truth when the purposes of religion and humanity can be served by it. But when can this be? The religion of Christ is one eternal system of truth, and can neither be served by a lie, nor admit one.” He goes on to say that the next [false] step is to say: “Let us do evil that good may come of it”—which was an accusation leveled against the apostle Paul by his critics in Romans 3:8. The dictionary defines a lie as a false statement deliberately presented as being true, or something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression. If lying is evil, then it is evil no matter what the eventual result may be. The Scarlet Thread Rahab and the spies discussed what she was to do to identify her house so the soldiers would know how to save her and her family: “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 she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window” (Joshua 2:18,21). Although the NIV says it was a scarlet cord, it is more likely that it was a cloth woven with scarlet thread, a kind of red flag. Rahab hid the spies among stalks of flax drying on the roof. Flax is used to make linen, and Rahab probably made cloth. One of the spies might have seen some red cloth in her home and realized it could be used as an identifying flag. The “red” was a sign or pledge of safety to all within that house. Marking the outside of a home with red is similar to what happened at the Exodus. Israelites marked their doorposts and lintels with red blood so the death angel would pass over their houses during the night. A family showed faith to think splashing blood would do any good at all. Rahab also had faith that this red flag would save her. And it did save her. She and her family became the first proselytes of Judaism after Israel entered Canaan. She was fully accepted by the Israelites. Her past stayed in the past. In fact she married a prince of Judah: “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David” (Matthew 1:5,6, NIV). Salmon’s father was Nahshon. When he died in the wilderness, Salmon would have succeeded him. What could have possessed Salmon to marry a heathen prostitute? In fact when he married her she was neither heathen nor a prostitute. That was in the past. Although the account does not say it directly, it is likely Salmon was one of the two spies that fateful night. He saw Rahab’s faith firsthand and fell in love with her. Although initially she was outside God’s covenant nation, Rahab was fully accepted and became part of the genealogical chain extending from Adam to Jesus Christ. How like our loving God to do the unexpected, to take one here and one there who may be considered undesirable by those who think they know better: “The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matthew 21:31, NIV). What does God think of prostitutes? He loves them. And if they accept his love, they can become transformed: “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers … will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NIV). Summary The experience of Rahab and the spies contains interesting lessons for us: 1. Let us, like Joshua, use wisdom in undertaking the work of the Lord and try to do everything carefully, even though we know the results are from the Lord. 2. “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:6). Rahab says, “The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11). She was determined to serve that God, not something less. She survived because of her faith. We know so much more than she did about this God. Let us never lose our faith in him. 3. Lying is wrong. It is sad to see anyone lie. Learn to say, “I’d rather not answer that question,” or “I don’t know.” Speak the truth, or don’t speak at all. The “ends” never justify the means. Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44); the God whom we serve is the father of truth (John 15:26). 4. God may sometimes reach outside his “chosen” people, those with whom he works more than others, to find one here and one there to bless. “Don’t tell lies to each other; it was your old life with
all its wickedness that did that sort of thing: now it is dead and gone. You
are living a brand new kind of life that is continually learning more and more
of what is right and trying constantly to be more and more like Christ who
created this new life within you.” —Colossians 3:9,10, Living Bible. |