Joshua 2: The Spies Found More Than Just Info! Series

Introduction: This second chapter of Joshua has the record of two spies, sent by Joshua, to get as much information about Jericho as they could. This chapter also has the account of how Rahab, a Canaanitess and native of Jericho, had come to believe in the God of Israel. Rahab protected the two spies and received a tremendous reward for doing this. The spies made it back to the camp of Israel and gave Joshua some information, but maybe not what he expected to hear!

1 What Rahab did for the spies

A Protection from the king of Jericho

Text, Joshua 2:1-7, KJV: 1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there. 2 And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. 3 And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country. 4 And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: 5 And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them. 6 But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. 7 And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.

How many of us have heard or seen the slogan, “Knowledge is power”? Joshua, Israel’s new leader, probably knew that he didn’t know enough about the new task at hand. That task was to lead an entire nation of nearly two million people into the land of their inheritance. Of course, we don’t know how much Joshua knew about Canaan in general and Jericho in particular and that uncertainty was probably the driving reason why he sent the two spies into Jericho. Any knowledge he could gain would be to Joshua’s advantage, then.

The text doesn’t have anything about Joshua’s instructions to the spies except, “Go, view the land, even Jericho.” Maybe there were more instructions we don’t have but the idea was clear: find out as much as you can about Jericho.

Now, to get to Jericho the spies would have had to swim across the Jordan River, navigate through some unfamiliar land, and then find a place where they could gather information or “intel”, to use a military term. Commentators and Bible teachers give various estimates as to the size, population, and military strength of Jericho but all agree—it was formidable.

And when they got to Jericho, I’ve always wondered how they met Rahab in the first place, and then, why they went to her house! Dr. Daniel Whedon suggests the spies arrived when harlots—and there was no doubt Rahab was one—began their trade of the evening and followed her to her house (https://bibleportal.com/commentary/section/whedon-s-commentary-on-the-bible/478650). Thomas Coke alluded to Serrarius that Rahab may have served as a “temple prostitute” for the god of Jericho (https://bibleportal.com/commentary/section/thomas-coke-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/111054) And “The Biblical Illustrator” has a number of articles about Rahab, how that she may have left her old life to become an honest inn-keeper: note that she had stalks of flax on her house’s roof, but then again, flax was one of the items Gomer received as rewards from her lovers (Hosea 2:5, KJV).

It’s clear, though, that the two spies had enough of God’s “go-ahead” to follow Rahab to her house and lodged there. “Lodged” meant “lay down (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7901.htm)”, so this may be a sign they got to Rahab’s house close to sundown. At any rate, they were probably very tired and just wanted to get some rest!

But while they were up on the roof, Rahab was in some very hot water, so to speak. The king of Jericho had sent “some (we’re not told who or how many)” to get information from Rahab! These guards, let’s call them that, wanted her to hand over the men as they somehow figured out these two were indeed spies who had come to “search out all the country (verse 3)”.

What was she going to do now? Was she going to betray the two spies? Would she put her own life, and maybe that of her extended family, at risk because she allowed two foreign men into her house? Would she honor the king and his officers, or would she defend the Hebrew men no matter what the cost would be?