But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho.
- Joshua 6:25
You know the old saying, “Three strikes and you’re out? Rahab had three strikes against her. She was a Canaanite, a woman and a prostitute. We would have seen the three strikes and wrote her off.
God looked not at the outward woman, He saw her heart, saved her and this unlikely woman became an ancestor of Jesus the Messiah.
The children of Israel were finally about to enter the Promised Land. Joshua, their commander, sent two spies into the land. “Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho,” he told them.
The two spies entered Jericho and came to the home of Rahab and stayed there that night. But someone told the king of Jericho that Israelites had come to spy out the land. He sent orders to her house, “Bring out the men who have come into your house for they are here to spy out the whole land.”
She told them the men had been there earlier, but she didn’t know who they were. “They left the town at dusk, as the gates were about to close. I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them.”
The men left and went to search for the spies and the gates were closed after them.
The truth of the men’s whereabouts? She had taken them to her rooftop and hidden them under bundles of flax. In those days, the rooftop was flat and flax was dried and then spun into linen. Maybe another way Rahab was making a living or making clothing for herself or materials for her Inn.
Before the men went to sleep, Rahab went to the rooftop to talk with them. She told them how everyone in the land had heard of the way God had parted the Red Sea and delivered the two Amorite kings into their hands.
More than that, she told them of her belief in their God. “No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.”
She asked them to show kindness to her as she had shown kindness to them. She wanted them to deliver her and her whole family when they conquered Jericho. The men replied, “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.”
She let them down from the roof and over the wall, with a rope and the men told her to bind the scarlet cord to the window through which she let them down when they came into the land. She was to bring her whole family to her home if they were to be saved.
When the men returned to Joshua, they told him everything that had happened and he understood God had delivered all the land into their hands.
When the walls of Jericho fell, Joshua instructed the two spies to rescue Rahab and her family. They took them and left them outside their camp. Probably because they would have to be ceremonially cleansed before entering the camp.
Was it okay for Rahab to lie? The Bible teaches clearly that it is wrong to lie and that no liar will enter heaven. Rahab believed in God, but she had no way of knowing God’s laws. If she had, God would have given her a different way of handling the striation.
What happened to Rahab? She married, some say one of the spies, but we only know his name was Salmon. The two had a son they named Boaz.
Sound familiar? He was the one who was kind to Ruth and married her. He was a kind, godly man of great standing and wealth in Bethlehem. Rahab did a great job as a mother. She seems to have learned the ways of God and taught them to her son. Boaz and Ruth had Obed, who in turn had Jesse, the father of King David.
Rahab is listed in the genealogy of Jesus. The Canaanite prostitute came out of the darkness into the light. What a great lesson in the way God works in the hearts of people!
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