250 Joshua: Lessons from a Shady Lady

She wasn’t anyone’s first pick for a hero, but God had other ideas. She showed a courageous faith that changed her life—and history—forever.

Her name was Rahab, a disreputable woman from the pagan Canaanite city of Jericho. The word the Bible uses to describe her is zonah: prostitute, harlot. There’s no way to sanitize it.

Yet Rahab had come to a point of faith in Israel’s God, Yahweh. She had heard the stories of the miraculous ways God had given victory to His people, so when she heard that the Israelite army was breathing down Jericho’s neck, her faith moved her to act with courage.

Israel’s commander, Joshua, had sent two spies into the city of Jericho. When the king of Jericho heard about the two strangers who had entered the city and that they had gone to the hostel run by Rahab, he sent a message commanding her to turn the spies over to him. 

But Rahab hid the spies and sent a message back to the king, saying that the men had already left. Once the pursuers left Jericho, the gates to the city were closed. 

Rahab went to the spies where they were hiding and begged for her life. “Please swear to me that you will spare my life and the lives of my family when you attack the city.”

The men agreed, with one caveat. She must gather her family into her house and hang a scarlet cord from the window to identify her house. 

Rahab then let the men down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, and they safely returned to the Israelite camp.

When the time came for the battle of Jericho, there on the city wall was a scarlet cord hanging from the window. Rahab and her family were spared, and Rahab lived among the Israelites for the rest of her life.

Rahab’s story teaches us some wonderful lessons.

1.     Though God’s righteousness demands that evil must be judged, His love demands that He looks to offer mercy. 

2 Peter 3:9 says, “God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 

2.     God is looking for any who might be seeking Him and will pull out all the stops to make their salvation possible.

Could it be that God had Joshua send those spies, just for Rahab?

God is ready, willing, and able to reach out to those who are seeking Him. He is using creation, conscience, and Christ to prompt them by His Spirit. But…

3.     God uses His people to help spiritual seekers take the necessary next steps. 

At the top of this message, I mentioned that Rahab’s courageous faith changed history. In the first chapter of Matthew, we find the genealogy of Joseph, husband of Mary. Believe it or not, Rahab was the great-grandmother of King David. Not only that, the shady lady of Jericho is listed in the ancestral line of Jesus, the Messiah.

Text: Joshua 2, 6 

Originally recorded on August 21, 2016, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN