Rahab’s Rehab
Jos 2:1-19
Zec 3:2b …Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?
Spying is a dangerous business. It’s a practice that’s probably been around as long as men and countries have gone to war against each other. Some countries may not admit to it, but I think it’s probably safe to say that all countries practice it to one extent or another.
Now, when I was growing up, I used to love to watch the James Bond movies with all the scary villains, twisted plots and double-crosses, and of course the “shaken, not stirred” classy style of Bond, James Bond, and all the beautiful women that gravitated to him for one reason or another. Of course, we know that real spies are usually much less obvious, and less sophisticated and not usually part of the “jet set” like Bond was.
Sometimes, people become spies out of chance. They just happen to be in the right place at the right time and decided that something they’ve witnessed needs to be told, like that guy who posted the videos of interviews with Planned Parenthood. At other times, it could be that a person might be recruited because their nationality and native tongue is particularly needed. But whatever reason a person uses to become a spy, they are recognized as providing a much-needed service to one side, while they’re looked upon as criminals of the state on the other side.
Warring enemies crave information that will give them a strategic advantage over their enemy. The more you know about troop strength, supply lines, and the enemy’s current plans, the more likely you’ll come out on top in the coming battle, or the war. Whether you’re gaining military intelligence, or spreading disinformation (or, false information), it can be considered “money well-spent.”
Years ago, I watched a movie that was a true account of military disinformation back in WWII. The movie was titled “The Man Who Never Was” and it told the story of how British intelligence created a fictitious intelligence agent, including an actual cadaver of a dead man, who was strategically released into the Mediterranean from a submarine for the Germans to recover.
The British produced an incredibly detailed scheme of fake identity cards and prior fictitious secret communications in order to convince Berlin that the dead spy carried real, Allied war plans. And, so when the Germans found the body and became convinced that the fake reports and ID were real, they redeployed their troops from Sicily just before the Allied invasion there—giving the Allies a much easier entrance into Italy than what their comrades faced on the beaches in Normandy.
In warfare, good inside information and good disinformation will greatly help the cause of the side that’s better at it. And this is the underlying theme of the 2nd chapter of Joshua. The whole chapter reads similar to a spy novel that holds your interest and has you sitting on the edge of your seat throughout the whole story.
It’s a well-known, and much-loved story of an insider, who gives information and protection to outsiders, and as a result gains important historical significance in the Lord’s plan for the redemption of mankind. Rahab’s story provides us with host of types and symbols that we shouldn’t ignore. Many people tend to get bogged down in the details, expounding on how inept the spies were, or entangled in arguments about the morality of her lying to her king.
But what I want to do today is to approach this story from a different perspective and illustrate how her life is a type and shadow of the movement of God in the lives of unbelievers, beginning with God’s…
1. Unexpected Grace
Jos 2:1 …So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.
Tit 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; (9) not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
One definition of the word, grace is: simple elegance, or refinement of movement. Like a ballet dancer, or ballroom dancer. But as we use it in the biblical context, grace is the unmerited favor of God toward mankind. In other words, there is nothing in us as a race of beings that makes us inherently worthy of God’s favor. We have done nothing, nor can we do anything that would qualify us as deserving of God’s grace and mercy, but He gives it to us anyway.
In our story today, Joshua is getting ready to cross the Jordan river and start the conquest of the land. Every people group they encounter is to be considered “herem” or, “devoted to God.” What that means is that they belonged to God, and the Israelites were commanded to send them to Him. In essence—wipe them out.
But before they cross over the river, Joshua decided to do what any good general would do—he wanted to get the lay of the land. A lot of things have changed since he was last in this place 40 years earlier, and it only made good sense for him to send a couple of spies out to gather intelligence before they began their campaign.
Now, some might say this showed a lack of faith because God had already promised success. But nowhere does the Bible ever fault Joshua for doing this, and it could easily be argued that this action directly led to the inclusion of Rahab into the family of God, the ancestry of Jesus Christ, and the adding of her name to the hall of faith in Hebrews 11.
No, Joshua did exactly what God wanted him to do. Because just as the grace of God would use a future famine to send Elimelech, Naomi and their family into Moab to meet up with a Moabite woman named Ruth; and just as God’s grace would also send our Lord Jesus to a well outside the village of Sychar in Samaria to talk with a hated Samaritan woman; God’s grace would also send two spies into the city of Jericho to meet and start the process of rehab of a prostitute named Rahab.
And folks, she had everything going against her. She was just one of many who were under the ban. Her life was forfeit, because the Jews were coming in and everyone who wasn’t a Jew was going to be wiped out. Well, in a similar way, we were under the ban, or the curse, and our lives were also forfeit and under the judgment of God because of sin.
She was a woman, and middle eastern society even to this day regards women as having less worth than men. And, she practiced an occupation that was severely frowned upon in Hebrew society. Like Rahab, we are Gentiles, and before coming to Christ our minds were also, Eph 4:18 …darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
Rahab had nothing going for her, except the grace of God, which was demonstrated when, Jos 2:1 …they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. It’s a wonderful example of God’s grace coming upon one of “the least of these” (Mat 25:40,45), and it’s a type of how the first Joshua sent spies that were received into a harlot’s house—and the second Joshua (Jesus) send His followers to the highways and byways to be received by publicans, harlots and other castaways of society.
God’s grace came to Rahab and saved her household and brought faithful Gentiles into the people of God. Many years later, God’s grace would come into another Gentile household through the preaching of Peter, and reveal the mystery that had been hidden in ages past, Eph 3:6 …that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
Praise God for His abundant and unexpected grace that brings us to faith in Christ and into a…
2. Changed Life
Jos 2:9-11 …"I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. (10) "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 utterly destroyed. (11) "When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
Jas 2:24-25 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. (25) In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
The Bible tells us that Rom 10:17 …faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. And so, I think it’s important to point out that Rahab’s faith came through hearing about the great things that God had done. She started out by confessing that “She knows” that God had given the Israelites the land. That’s a remarkable confession, because not a single battle has been fought in Canaan yet. So, the only way she could have this kind of knowledge is through faith in the God of Israel.
And that faith came through hearing the reports of God’s work among His people, long before they even got to the land. The Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army had happened a long time before, but apparently the people in Canaan, and especially those living in and around Jericho, still talked about it. And then more recently, the destruction of the two kings, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan river, let everyone know that this God was still with His people, and still fighting for them.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God! This is why we see all through the Bible, calls to the people of faith to openly brag about the wonders of our God. Psa 96:3 Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. The Israelites were chosen by God to be His special people who would spread His glory throughout the world. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God told them that, Isa 49:6 …I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
So, Rahab had heard, and she believed. And that belief brought about a change in her life. Just like when Jacob wrestled with the Lord at the brook of Jabbok, the Lord touched him in the thigh and popped his leg out of socket. From that time on, he had a changed life and a changed walk. This is what happens when people come to saving faith in Christ. Their new life is demonstrated in a changed walk. Everything about them changes…thought patterns, manner of speech, outward demonstrations of love and compassion for our fellow man and the people of God.
When Rahab came to faith in the Lord, there were changes that came over her too. Though she was a stranger and an alien to the Israelites, yet she risked her life and livelihood to not only save the two Hebrew spies, but to also help them escape with vital information that fear had gripped the hearts of the people of Jericho. She committed treason against her own people because she turned away and repented of her former life and identified herself with the people of God.
And isn’t this exactly what happens when we come to faith in Christ? We become a new creature with a totally new heart and a new country? All of our former allegiances have been nullified, and now we’ve become citizens of an entirely different kingdom. Eph 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household,
Beloved, what country are you a citizen of? Are you of God’s household? Or, are you still of this world? Won’t you give your life to Christ, and declare your allegiance to Him today? Your time is growing very short, and if you wait much longer, you might miss out on the reward of faith, which is the salvation of your soul.
3. Faith Rewarded
Jos 2:14 So the men said to her, "Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the LORD gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you."
Heb 11:31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.
It’s only natural that when someone comes to faith, they want their loved ones to come along with them. But the truth is that this is a decision that every person must make on their own.
My dad was a pastor all of my childhood. Mom and dad raised up their family in the fear of the Lord, but there was a time when I turned away from the life of Christ and started living my own life the way I wanted. But for some reason, for much of that time I remember feeling like I was still ok with God, because of my dad. I felt like I’d get into heaven on his coat tails, so-to-speak.
But when I came to saving faith in Christ, I understood how wrong I was about that. The realization hit me like a brick upside the head that I was a sinner, and I was going to hell. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. My dad couldn’t save me. My mom couldn’t save me. Only Jesus Christ could save me, and so I repented of my sins and gave my life to Christ from that day forward. And then, I could hardly wait to tell my family and friends all about it. I wanted them to experience what I had experienced.
Rahab did too. She wanted all of her family to be saved from the judgment that was about to fall upon Jericho, and all the land of Canaan. She wanted them to be taken into the commonwealth of Israel, right along with her. So, a deal was struck, and her family would be saved, but only under certain conditions.
Jos 2:18-19 unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household. (19) "It shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be free; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him.
Forty years earlier, the Jews in Egypt were saved from the angel of death by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses. When the angel came by that house, he’d see the blood, and pass on by. Everyone inside would be saved.
Rahab took the scarlett cord, probably a length of ribbon of some kind, because a red rope would be a pretty unique thing to have, and thread would be too fine to even notice in the heat of battle. So, I am thinking that since she was an unmarried and childless prostitute, she probably had some cloth and ribbon lying around that she’d make clothing out of. And when the spies saw that red cord, it would have immediately brought Egypt to mind. So, in a similar fashion that their own parents were saved from destruction, now Rahab and her family would be saved too.
But only so long as they stayed under the protection of that red cord. If any of her family were to leave the house, then they were leaving the protection of that red cord. Despite the promises of the spies, she and her whole household would perish if they turned away from the safety of the red cord.
Can you see the similarity to our own salvation here? We are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. Rom 5:8-9 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. His is the blood that is applied to the doorposts of our heart, and just as the death angel passed over the houses in Egypt that displayed the blood, so also does the wrath of God pass over every heart that has the blood of Christ applied to it. As the apostle Paul said, 1Co 5:7 …For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, but only of those of the world who believe in Him.
Won’t you believe and trust in Him today? Call out to Him in repentance and faith—saying something along the line of, “O Lord, forgive me for sinning against You. I give my heart, my life, and my all to you right now. Please make me into that new creature.”
If you will do that today, from the heart, then He has promised that He would never turn you away.
