Joshua Chapters 2 and 6
This study of Rahab is taken
from the book of Joshua, Chapters 2 and 6.
Rahab was a woman who demonstrated great faith, to the salvation of
herself and her family. In Joshua 2:1-2,
we have Joshua sending two spies into the walled city of Jericho, "to spy
secretly..to view the land, even Jericho" and they "came into an
harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there".
Someone must have
seen the men come into the city and enter Rahab's house, and they knew they
were of the "children of Israel"
and that they had come to search out all the country. V2 "and it
was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold there came men in hither tonight out of the children of Israel
to search out the country." We are not told whether or not the spies knew
Rahab was a harlot, but it was surely the divine intervention of God that they
came upon the house of a harlot, where it would not be unusual for men to
go. Nevertheless, the king of Jericho
sends word to Rahab V3 "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" But V4 "Rahab took the two men, and hid
them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they
were" and she further told them V5 "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." But V6 Rahab
"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." And the king's men V7 "pursued after them
the way to Jordan...."
Before the spies had laid down V8 "she
came up unto them upon the roof"
and in Vs 9-11 Rahab gives the reasons for her actions. "I know that the
LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that
all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the
water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto
the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon an Og,
whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon
as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any
more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in
heaven above, and in earth beneath". Rahab knew and believed that the LORD
had given them the land, that the inhabitants were terribly afraid, and that
they had heard about the parting of the Red Sea, and what had befallen the
Amorites. Then she makes the great confession
of faith; "for the LORD your God,
he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath". Rahab, who is a Gentile, believes in God and
exhibits saving faith. As Galatians 3:28
says "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus".
