Rahab lived in Jericho, the world’s oldest city, thought to have been established approximately 9000 years B.C. Its ruins are located just a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. Some archeologists suggest their religion revolved around gods of the moon.
We first read about Rahab in the biblical book of Joshua. She is called a prostitute (Joshua 2:2), although the Hebrew word sometimes refers to “innkeeper.” The writer of Hebrews included her in a list of those who had exemplary faith, and James praised how she acted on her faith (James 2:25).
“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. . .By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” (Hebrews 10:39; 11:31, NIV)
The lives of Rahab, Joshua, and Joshua’s spies intersected in a dangerous, God-led encounter and Rahab was declared one of God’s treasures.
Rahab’s Vantage Point
We meet Rahab when God ordered the Israelites into the promised land of Canaan for the second time. Joshua, who had succeeded Moses as the Israelite leader, sent spies into Jericho to check out the land.
Rahab’s house was part of the wall that encircled the city, and it had a window on the outside (2:15). Technically, she “lived on the fence.” She could see what was going on inside as well as outside the city walls and this would give an advantage to the spies as well. Rahab had vital information to share with the spies because of the location of her house. Moreover, her livelihood provided her with ample and reliable information, as the guests who stayed there would have been soldiers, salesmen, traders, and members of the caravans of merchants. Their conversations would have given her the news outside Jericho, as well as about the massive group of Israelites that had roamed through the Sinai Peninsula desert for 40 years!
In particular, Rahab would have known the morale of the Canaanites, and in particular of the residents of Jericho. God knows how to make an impression on hearts. Truth is what makes the biggest impression, and the Canaanites had come to know the truth about the powerful God who led the Israelites, whether they admitted it or not. They also knew of Israel’s “take no prisoners–style conflict.”[1] Rahab allowed the spies to enter her home and told them what she knew.
“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. . .When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you. . .” (Joshua 2:9;11a, NIV)
Who was Rahab in the Bible? “When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you. . .”
When the king was told that Hebrew spies were lodging with Rahab, he sent soldiers to bring them in. Rahab learned of this and hid the spies on her roof under flax sheaths. The king’s men arrived at her door, and she told them the spies had gone on their way before the city gate was closed for the night. When the king’s soldiers left, she went to the spies and begged for her life and for the life of her family. From what she knew, trusting in the God of the Israelites was her only hope and she had come to a decision.
To secure protection, she agreed to help the spies leave Jericho alive, only if they swore to protect her and her family when they returned to make war. She knew the invading army would show no mercy to the Canaanites. The bargain became a binding agreement when both parties invoked the name of the Lord.
“‘Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.’ ‘Our lives for your lives!’ the men assured her. ‘If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.'”(Joshua 2:12-14, NIV)
Who was Rahab in the Bible? “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.”
We see a shift in Rahab’s vantage point when she made a contract with the spies. Not only did she see them as her only help in time of trouble, but she also realized that she could no longer follow the Canaanite ways. She confessed her belief in the God of the Israelites, which we might call a conversion. David M. Howard, in his commentary on Joshua, provides three reasons why this confession is remarkable[2]:
- She acknowledged that Israel’s God has dominion over all creation. She confessed her choice to believe in the God of the Israelites.
- Her statement that “your God is God,” acknowledged that the Canaanite gods were not true “gods” nor did they have any power. She rejected idolatry.
- Her confession “for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth below” (Joshua 2:11b), is found only three other times in Scripture (Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 4:39; Deuteronomy 5:8).
Rahab was not just trying to save herself. She was affirming the sovereignty of God “who is worthy of worship and allegiance.” In other words, she would now worship the one true God only.
Rahab’s Deception
When the king’s soldiers arrived at her door, she misled them about the direction the spies had taken out of Jericho. Yes, she lied. Scripture dealt with lying in the Ten Commandments, which she had not heard, although we all have a basic sense of morality written on our hearts (Romans 2:14-15). There is an ongoing theological debate between whether lying for a good reason (e.g., to save a life) is a virtuous, greater good or rather a lesser evil for which there is forgiveness. What we can say for sure is that, while lying is never the ideal, “Our sin in Adam has created an ethical mess from which we sometimes cannot extricate ourselves.”[3]
“When the king’s soldiers arrived at her door, she misled them about the direction the spies had taken out of Jericho.”
Rahab’s plea to make a deal with the enemy put her into a covenant relationship, a contract, with the Israelites. To couch her request, Rahab used a “technical word: hesed or ‘mercy,’ often reserved for covenant discussions.”[4] In simple language, she was saying, “I was kind to you; you be kind to me,” seeking an ‘in kind’ response from Israel.
How did Rahab know to use this language and to seek this salvation? She showed sufficient knowledge of God’s blessing over the Israelite nation to plant in her seeds of doubt in the Canaanite gods. She knew the Lord had dried up the water of the Red Sea forty years previously, as well as the fate of Israel’s enemies Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites who had opposed the Israelites (Joshua 2:10). From her vantage point, faith in the Israelite God was the only option she could consider. She could have brought short-lived honor to herself by producing the spies for her king. Instead, she chose to help the spies.
Rahab and the Spies
The spies had entered Jericho with Joshua’s orders ringing in their ears. He told them:
“‘Go, look over the land. . .especially Jericho.’ So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.” (Joshua 2:1, NIV)
The spies may have posed as travelers or merchants, and Rahab’s inn was the logical base of operations for their task. However, the king of Jericho had spies of his own who notified him that Hebrew men were in Rahab’s home. She gave them cover on the roof and cover by misdirecting the soldiers. Soon, the spies had all the information they needed to take back to their commander.
The spies found an ally in Rahab, who begged them to save her and her family, to return the kindness of saving their lives. Before she let them down from the window with a rope, she entered into agreement with them. They also required that she put the scarlet rope hanging from her window to indicate where she and her family were so the army knew to spare them.
Realizing they had no official right to make such deals, they added some last-minute conditions, possibly hoping for a way to get out of trouble with their commander, and with the Lord. She had to have all her family together when the campaign began. And if she told anyone else, the agreement was null and void.
“She had to have all her family together when the campaign began.”
When the spies’ feet hit the ground, they had Rahab to thank for their lives, but they also had a problem. They had just made an agreement with their enemy, potentially a harlot no less, and survivors were prohibited in God’s command to “destroy them all.” In Deuteronomy 7:1–5 and 20:16–18, for example, God gave explicit instructions about not entering into any treaties with the peoples of the land of Canaan, but he ordered them to annihilate its inhabitants completely.[5] Yet God went on to honor their agreement.
Rahab and Joshua
When God had first rescued the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, He promised to be their God and to give them their own land as long as they were faithful. But ten of the twelve spies were afraid of the Canaanites and convinced the rest of the Israelites not to enter the land. They feared the Canaanite people rather than trusting what they knew about God. After all the miracles they had lived through, and His provision and protection, they rejected His leadership. As punishment, God set them to wander in the wilderness for forty years until that whole generation had died. But because two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, pleaded with the people to remember their God, to unite and to enter, they would be the only two adult men from that generation to enter the promised land. When that generation of Israelites had passed, Moses commissioned Joshua as leader.
“Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:7-8, ESV)
“Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, pleaded with the people to remember their God, to unite and to enter.”
Not only did Moses commission Joshua, but God Himself also gave Joshua the charge to take the land.
“After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ aide: ‘Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.'” (Joshua 1:1-7, NIV)
Joshua assumed full authority over the people and the God-given mission. Neither spies nor soldiers, much less a Canaanite innkeeper, would have had any right or power to make binding agreements about the invasion. In fact, God specifically assigned that authority and made sure the Israelites had no doubt about it when just before they crossed the Jordan, when He told Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses” (Joshua 3:7, NIV).
“Neither spies nor soldiers, much less a Canaanite innkeeper, would have had any right or power to make binding agreements about the invasion.”
So, when Rahab and the spies made a pact, each side desperate for their own lives, neither had any assurance that Joshua would respect the deal. For their part, the spies knew that Joshua had made this command about their mission: “…when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.” (Deuteronomy 7:2, NIV, emphasis added). With those words certainly weighing on their minds, they headed back to their camp.
The Day Jericho’s Walls Fell
The day of victory finally arrived early in the morning on the last day of the seven-day march around the city. The soldiers had crossed the Jordan River, experienced circumcision, and celebrated the first Passover in Canaan. Joshua had seen the “commander of the Lord’s army.” He fell on his face in worship and removed his sandals because it was holy ground. Joshua and his army must have been galvanized by the presence of the Lord as they entered the city. Interestingly, Scripture gives no description of what happened next other than that the walls fell down flat and “they devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys” (Joshua 6:21, NIV).
And yet Joshua’s attention returned to Rahab. He ordered the two spies to find Rahab and her family and escort them to safety. After they destroyed the city, we read that,
“Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she spared the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.” (Joshua 6:24-25, NIV)
Who was Rahab in the Bible? “. . .She spared the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.”
How could Joshua’s order to rescue Rahab and her family be acceptable, considering God’s instructions to annihilate the people and not to make any treaty with them? “The crucial difference is Rahab’s confession of faith in Israel’s God. By this, she made herself an Israelite, so to speak. She chose to cast her lot with Israel’s God, not the Canaanites’ gods.”[6] She acted like an Israelite, not a Canaanite, so he gave her the protection he would have given any of his people.
An understanding of the word “devoted” may also help explain what seems like a contradiction. Joshua instructed the soldiers to rescue the “treasures,” certain valuable objects that were devoted to God. Mark Ziese mentions in his commentary on Joshua that in two passages, Joshua mentions Rahab in terms of what belongs to God (6:17-19, 6:24-25). He ordered the men to bring Rahab and her family to safety because they now belonged with God’s people. This sense of “belonging” was central to the Hebrew nation then as it is central to the Christian experience today. We cherish those who are in the “family” as treasures.
Yet the answer may be as simple as God’s grace and mercy. Who among the Israelites of that day, or of any believer today, can claim to deserve what God gives us, or to deserve escape from what God prevents from happening to us? Perhaps Joshua had heard from the angelic Commander of the Lord’s army to save Rahab and her family. Or maybe Joshua was so moved by the rescue of his spies that he simply found it in his heart to honor the pact and bring them to safety.
Who was Rahab in the Bible? “Joshua ordered the men to bring Rahab and her family to safety because they now belonged with God’s people.”
Rahab is not held up as an example in the books of Hebrews and James because she had no sin. She is honored because she made a rational decision to leave behind what had been her life—for the unknown. With good evidence, she changed sides in a war. She turned away from what she was familiar with because of faith. Then she acted on her decision.
Conclusion
Who was Rahab? She was a Canaanite, likely a harlot, and a brave and insightful woman who helped the Israelites take Jericho and enter the Promised Land. Rahab also became an ancestor of such figures as Boaz, David, Solomon, and Jesus Himself. Before we file this ancestry fact away as nothing but trivia, take into consideration that God never has been, nor will He be, a respecter of persons. Among Jesus’ ancestors is a foreign prostitute whom God saved!
“And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness’—and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not also Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:23-26, NIV)
No matter who you are, if you make the same carefully considered decision to believe and devote yourself to the one true God, He will welcome you too.
[1] Mark Ziese, Joshua, The College Press NIV Commentary (Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing, 2008), 87.
[2] David M. Howard, Joshua, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1998), 103.
[3] J. W. Montgomery, quoted in Howard, Joshua, 164.
[4] Ziese, Joshua, 88.
[5] Robert Polzin, Moses and the Deuteronomist: A Literary Study of the Deuteronomic History: Part 1: Deuteronomy/Joshua/Judges (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 86.
[6] Howard, Joshua, 113–117.
