June 2, 2019: Day 36 – Joshua 2
June 7, 2019There is a lot to look through in this story with BC eyes. Let’s start, first of all, if you don’t know this story, read it again 5 times until it becomes familiar to you. The story of Rahab…
Let’s begin with Joshua’s command to his men, go spy out the land and bring a report back, especially about Jericho. So keep in mind this is a foreign land, a pagan land, that was being scoped out for battle. The next thing we read is: “So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute…and spent the night there.” Come on guys…FOCUS!! There is no explanation, like they entered that house because… It should be obvious why they entered the house of Rahab. She was a prostitute and lived on the city wall and hers would have been the first of houses that they would have seen. They went into her house and spent the night because, well, she was a prostitute. That’s what you do, you spend the night with prostitutes…, no, not really, actually not at all. There is not a single sentence of explanation. It is so easy to romanticize this story and completely miss the scandal in it. It is a scandalous, shocking story that doesn’t provide any explanation. So we move on.
She then lies to the king’s men and tells them those who spent the night with her had gone. Again, no sentence of explanation as to whether or not her lie was justified. We know why she lied, she believed that her town of Jericho was about to be overwhelmed and taken over and sacked by the Israelites, so this is my chance to save myself and my family. That is exactly what she does. She makes a deal, a covenant, she signs an agreement with these spies with a crimson thread out of her window.
We know the story plays itself out just as Rahab says. She is saved and, the story doesn’t stop. For generations to come she will be remembered as the ancestor of Jesus. Yes, a prostitute, a liar, a person of immeasurable faith (Hebrews 11:31), of righteous works (2:25), and a person who would have been shunned and an outcast in her town and society, her DNA was in Jesus’ blood. That’s powerful, absolutely powerful. Here is a picture of Rahab in art history.
