Over the last two weeks we’ve looked at the three historical incidents in Hebrews 11:29-31. We’ve seen in the case of Israel going safely through the Reed Sea that faith attempts the impossible (Heb. 11:29). We’ve also noted that in the case of Israel marching around the walls of Jericho expecting it to fall was accepting the irrational.
Today we’re going to look at someone on the other side of that wall in Jericho, the woman of faith known as Rahab.
By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. (Heb. 11:31)
While Israel marched around the walls of Jericho all week, another drama was taking place inside one of the houses in the city wall. A prostitute named Rahab was crowded in her home with her extended family, waiting anxiously to see what would happen. Her story, condensed into one verse, shows that faith adjusts the immoral, it brings about a transformation in their lives.
You see, faith not only conquers, it converts. The first two stories are stories of conquest. This story is a story of conversion, or how God conquers a soul. Rahab’s story is a wonderful exhibit of God’s grace. It contains seven lessons for us.
First, note how unlikely a candidate for salvation Rahab was. From a Jewish perspective she had three strikes against her: she was a woman; she was a Canaanite (She was, in fact, an Amorite, a race that God had long before marked for destruction (Gen. 15:16); and she was a prostitute. Yet, apart from Abraham’s wife Sarah, Rahab is the only woman mentioned by name in Hebrews 11.
Jewish men would sanctimoniously pray, “Lord, I thank You that You didn’t make me a Gentile or a woman!” But God saw fit to save this Gentile woman, a prostitute at that! From ancient times, many commentators have tried to evade this, saying that she was merely an innkeeper. But both the Hebrew and Greek words are crystal clear: she was a prostitute.
God’s agents were saved by a madame, the proprietress of a bordello, a woman who sold her body for money, who submitted to any man who crossed her doorway if he had the cash.
It is most significant that the final person to receive individual commentary in the list of champions of faith is a woman and a Gentile and a prostitute. Rahab’s faith, a prostitute’s faith, is given as an example for all who desire to have true faith–especially those who know they are sinners and who deep down want to be pleasing to God. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, vol. 2, 137)
Have you ever wondered why the spies (Joshua 2) would go to a prostitute’s house. Thomas Aquinas (cited by Philip Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 503) explained that they did not go there to sin, but because it was a good hiding place. Such houses were open to the public, especially at night, when the men arrived in the city (Joshua 2:2). Harlots received their guests without discriminating or asking too many questions. The king of Jericho seemed to accept that as normal that these men would visit her in the night and leave almost as quickly as they had come.
But behind all the spies’ reasons for going to Rahab’s house was God’s gracious providence. Even though Rahab was an unlikely candidate for salvation (there was very little that was “good” about her), God’s grace had reached down to her.
Now, it is true that she is held out as an example of good works, by hiding the spies (James 2:25), but even this is not what motivated God to deliver her. That was motivated by His pure, uncaused grace, simply because He wanted to!
In grace, God takes losers and makes them winners. Grace means that, in spite of the fact that we stand condemned by the Law, and deserve judgment and eternal punishment, we have the opportunity to enter God’s plan through faith in Christ, and to have a joy-filled and productive life.
The fact that she is called “Rahab, the harlot”, even after her conversion, underscores God’s abundant grace toward sinners.
Now, the spies did not know that they had another mission for them besides spying on Jericho’s defenses, but God did. Sometimes we go somewhere on some errand with some intents and purpose, bug God has another purpose, to use us to lead to salvation someone whom we might deem an unlikely, or unworthy, candidate for God’s family.
Second, we learn that Rahab’s faith saved her from perishing.
God commanded Israel to kill everyone in Jericho. In Joshua 6:17 Joshua had instructed, “the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.”
Modern critics, who must be wiser than God, think that God was cruel (or Joshua was mistaken) to order the extermination of everyone in Jericho.
But God had given the Canaanites 400 years to fill up the measure of their sin (Gen. 15:13-16). This was not impetuous anger over one issue, but centuries of accumulated sins heaped up on their record.
For 40 years, these people had heard about how God had delivered Israel from Egypt through the Reed Sea, so they had time to believe, like Rahab (Joshua 2:9-13).
For several years, they had known how God had defeated the Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan.
Then, for seven days, they had watched Israel march around their city. However, no one repented of their sins. Only Rahab, and perhaps her family.
Remember that all of God’s attributes are infinite. His love is infinite; His mercy is infinite; His righteousness is infinite. Only God’s patience is finite. At some point His patience comes to an end. At some point the cup of iniquities is full and the balance of judgment tilts toward judgment.
Rahab could have complained that God was unfair to judge her city. She no doubt lost many friends in the conquest. But instead, she realized that she deserved death for her evil lifestyle. She knew that the Lord, the God of Israel, is “God in the heavens above and on earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11). And although the entire city trembled with fear of the impending attack (Josh. 2:11), their fear did not lead to repentance or faith. Rahab’s fear led her to turn from her sin and believe in the God of Israel. By faith, she “did not perish with those who were disobedient” (Heb. 11:31).
Many think, and this is a distinct possibility, that Rahab had come to faith in God before the spies arrived at her house. When God providentially led the spies to her house, she saw it as a means of rescue for herself and her family. Although she did not understand much theology, she had enough faith in the one true God to want him to save her and her family. Her past life of sin did not disqualify her from salvation. God delights to save notorious sinners for His glory.
Thirdly, Rahab’s faith separated her from her disobedient contemporaries. Those who perished are here called “disobedient” (Heb. 11:31). They were not “basically good people” that God judged for no good reason. They had heard about God’s power, but they refused to bow their knees to Him. They mistakenly believed that their walled city would protect them.
To be saved, Rahab had to break off from her people, her culture, and her source of income. That couldn’t have been easy. She might have wondered about her future security.
We are not told whether she warned her fellow citizens of the coming judgment, or whether they mocked her for holing up in her house while Israel’s armies were marching around the city walls.
But it is still true today: saving faith means making a distinct break from this evil world, so that we often stand out as weird in their eyes. This is why Peter says…
For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Pet. 4:3-5)
The inhabitants of Jericho may have wondered why Rahab closed up shop, not realizing that they were about to be held accountable to God.
Fourth, Rahab’s faith was an obedient faith. James 2:25 lists Rahab next to Abraham as an example of one whose faith resulted in works that “justifies” her in the eyes of humanity.
And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
James is not here denying justification by faith alone, but rather is making the point that genuine faith always results in good works. The statement ““We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone” is attributed to Martin Luther, that great defender of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. In other words, true faith always results in good works. Faith is the root, however, while works is the fruit. Faith is the cause, works the effect.
Rahab’s faith led her to hide the spies and send them away secretly, even though it would put her life at great risk. Then, she had to obey the explicit instructions that the spies gave her, to put the scarlet rope in her window and to have all her family inside the house with her, in order for them to be saved. She did all that.
The classic symbol that revealed Rahab’s great faith was the scarlet cord she hung from her window over the wall of Jericho. Joshua 2:17–20 record how the two spies promised her safety if she would display that cord in her window. They vowed that everyone in the house would survive if the red cord were in place. Rahab’s faith invited their saving work. Joshua 2:21 says she replied, “‘According to your words, so be it.’
Recent scholarship has suggested that the scarlet rope may have been the mark of a prostitute and that Rahab lived, so to speak, in the “red rope” district. It is also noted that since the Hebrew word for “rope” is the same word for “hope”–and most often means “hope”–there may be an intentional pun here: the “rope” is the prostitute’s “hope” for customers! But now that Rahab has confessed Jehovah as God, her scarlet “rope” signified a new kind of “hope”–that of deliverance by God. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, vol. 2, 139-40)
However, it may have seemed silly to them to watch Israel marching silently around the walls for 13 times. She and her family may have been tempted to join the others on the wall shouting insults to the troops below. However, she persisted in obedience and they were all saved.
She might have had to remind herself and later her family of some of the truths that had led her to faith. She had told the spies and likely was rehearsing to herself…
I know that the LORD has given you the land. . . . For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. (Joshua 2:9–11)
Granted, Rahab’s faith was not perfect in obedience. She was a pagan woman from a pagan culture, and it was a difficult situation when the king’s messenger came to her house looking for the two spies, so she lied. Lying is sin, even when it is for a good cause. But God was gracious to take Rahab’s faith and obedience as seen in her welcoming the spies, and He forgave her lie.
I agree with John Calvin:
As to the falsehood, we must admit that though it was done for a good purpose, it was not free from fault. For those who hold what is called a “dutiful lie” to be altogether excusable, do not sufficiently consider how precious truth is in the sight of God. Therefore, although our purpose be to assist our brethren, to consult for their safety and relieve them, it never can be lawful to lie, because that cannot be right which is contrary to the nature of God. And God is truth. . . . On the whole, it was the will of God that the spies should be delivered, but He did not approve of saving their lives by falsehood (John Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of Joshua (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1984), p. 47).
If you will come to faith in Christ, even just as you are, He will save you and then begin to work His holiness into your life. It doesn’t matter how many sins you have committed or how bad they might be, God can forgive you and cleanse you.
Fifth, Rahab’s faith caused her to reach out to her family. If find it amazing her (and encouraging) that Rahab wants to include her whole family in what she believes will be their deliverance. After all, as a prostitute, even in that pagan culture, it is likely that her family turned their backs on her long ago and rejected her. For her to reach out to them now shows a forgiving heart.
While we don’t know if her family was spiritually “saved,” we do know that they were physically delivered along with Rahab and likely, along with Rahab, became a part of the people of God.
This encourages us to realize that God can use the salvation of an unlikely person, like Rahab, to reach an entire family through her faith.
Sixth, Rahab’s faith brought her into covenant relationship with God and his people. James Montgomery Boice (Joshua: We Will Serve the Lord, p. 45) points out that Rahab actually became more “Jewish” than many of the contemporary Jews by birth, in that she believed God, whereas they did not.
Matthew Henry (Matthew Henry’s Commentary [Revell] VI:950) comments, “A true believer is desirous, not only to be in covenant with God, but in communion with the people of God, and is willing to cast in his lot with them, and to fare as they fare.”
For her faithful courage Rahab not only was spared but was honored. She became the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth, the great-great-grandmother of David, and she thereby came to be an ancestor of Jesus (Mt 1:5). (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 364)
Joshua spared the life of Rahab’s family and placed them “outside the camp of Israel” (Josh 6:23). Nevertheless, because of her faith, Rahab was welcomed by the Israelites, married Salmon, and became the mother of Boaz, who was the great-grandfather of David (Ruth 4:21; Mt 1:5-6). (William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: Hebrews, 349)
Finally, Rahab’s faith changed her life from futility to fruitfulness. Prostitution is never glamorous, despite the way it was portrayed on Pretty Woman. It is ugly. It is debasing. Men pay to use a woman’s body, with no regard for her as a person. Prostitutes are never really respected for what they do. They are disrespected and when their bodies become too old to perform, they are discarded.
But God is in the business of reclaiming the lives of the worst of sinners. Those who turn to Him, like Rahab, get married and become mothers and grandmothers. She became a partaker in all of Israel’s spiritual privileges and even became linked to Christ Himself (Matthew 1:5).
Any life outside of Christ is futile and headed for eternal damnation. Any life that God saves by His grace, no matter how awful before, becomes fruitful and headed for everlasting glory.
Don’t get comfortable in Jericho. Put your faith in the God who saves and transforms ugly, sinful lives into beautiful, fruitful, God-glorifying saints.