She acts out of allegiance to Him and his people, and is blessed not only by being spared from death but also by being brought into the family of God. Her legacy is to continue to transform communities by training her son to act honorably, protect those who are weaker, and fulfill family duties. The story of Rahab is riddled with controversy. As a woman who exchanges her body for money, Rahab is not a picture of propriety.
Plus she lies in order to protect the Israelite spies, her family, and herself. Still, she acts shrewdly and courageously in the face of danger, and demonstrates devotion to God. Having dealt with those who seem to think that dishonest means are acceptable to achieve whatever they claim God wants, I can say that doing wrong in order to achieve even a worthy end is wrong. Further, I believe God is much more interested in how we act and treat people than what we accomplish.
What He is most interested in is the condition of our hearts, and a lying heart is not a pleasing condition. The Bible affirms that bearing false witness is wrong. Still, I want to consider what may have happened to Rahab before we learn about her. We seem to accept her profession as if she made a conscious career choice after reviewing her options: engineer, teacher, nurse, diplomat, prostitute. Since she lived in a pagan culture, prostitution may have been a legitimate and lucrative career decision.
For example, and this is just an example to gain a lens through which to understand her approach, just possibly, Rahab was a victim of human trafficking. Maybe she was promised a good life, an education, an honorable career, and marriage to a rich man in exchange for government or tribal favor of her family but instead she was sold into prostitution.
Such bait-and-switch tactics happen today and could have happened then. If so, does this scenario make lying more palatable or acceptable? Her new allegiance to God may have brought clarity to her in a way that she had never experienced before. Whatever your take on Rahab, God blessed and transformed her despite imperfections and mistakes.
Based on what happened after the spies left, we can surmise that she is a woman of her word. What does this story mean for discovering practical applications for scripture and building community? To me, this story gives me an understanding that I may not know all that I think I know about another person. Only by listening to their stories can I get a better understanding of their lives, perspectives, hopes, and dreams. This process can help to deepen friendships and build a stronger sense of community.
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Whatever Rahab was before Israel crossed into the land of the Canaanites she became someone new in the promised land.
For Rahab believed. She not only believed in God but she also acted. For Rahab trusted in God who fulfilled the covenantal promise to Abraham that he would be given land from which would bring a nation, and a descendant, who would bless the earth. And we must always remember that this woman, rehab, was chosen by Almighty God to be a chosen instrument in bringing about salvation to the ends of the earth.
Rehab became a central strategic figure of incomparable courage as she helped Israel to enter the promised land and subdue her own people. Whenever the Army of Israel entered Canaan, Rahab acted according to a prearranged plan and hung out a scarlet cord from the window of her establishment. Thus, she and her family were saved. How interesting that a scarlet cord, likely, an emblem of ill-repute, became a sign of salvation.
How very beautiful to think that it is a scarlet cord of the covenant of God's grace that binds all of the Word of God together. And in Christ Jesus, the blood-stained crimson cross of shame became the gleaming symbol of salvation. Even more, Rahab was, soon, engrafted into the physical family of Israel as she became the wife of Salmon, one of the leaders of Israel who supported Moses when they left Egypt.
The woman who had been called a harlot became a godly wife and mother in Israel. She and her husband became the parents of a boy named Boaz. And that boy would one day marry a widow woman by the name of Ruth Ruth , Using the window gives a positive spin to a biblical window motif that casts a negative light on other biblical women. In saving the spies, Rahab she acts as head of her household.
A Canaanite woman living in Jericho, Rahab is a prostitute who is also a biblical heroine. According to the narrative in Joshua 2 , before the conquest of Canaan, Joshua sends two men as spies to see the land. The king, hearing about the two men, demands that Rahab give them up.
Rahab is midwife and mother to Israel in its beginnings in Canaan. Rahab lets the two men out through her window, which is in the town wall. She asks that she and her family be spared once the Israelites attack Jericho. The spies give her a crimson thread to hang from her window, with the injunction that she is to gather her family and wait inside her house; as long as they stay indoors, they will be spared.
When the Israelites destroy Jericho, as described in Joshua, Rahab and her whole extended family indeed escape doom by waiting inside a house marked with a red thread, just as the Israelites who stayed in houses marked with the blood of the paschal lamb were spared the fate of the Egyptians. Rahab and her family are a new Israel. All these women are looking through their palace windows, separated from the scenes they witness or hope to witness.
The window motif accentuates the aloofness of these elite women, who are removed from the real world outside the window. In contrast, Rahab is an active and involved user of the window, which becomes a vehicle of her communication with and connection to the outside world. Rahab is the head of her household, which was not only a dwelling but also a social unit.
The household was the most numerous unit of society in ancient Israel. As such, it was the foundational building block of the sociopolitical structure.
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