In a time when women were marginalised and unimportant, the presence of any woman’s name, let alone five women’s names, in a Jewish genealogy was remarkable. The fact that they are there tells us a lot about Christianity – it tells us that this faith is a counter-cultural faith, that women are valued and that everyone is welcome. Enter Rahab.
Rahab was not a Jew, she lived in pagan Jericho and she was a prostitute. On three counts, it might already be surprising that she would have been made an ancestor of Jesus. Let’s find out more about her story.
Many years have passed since the story of the last characters we met, Judah and Tamar. The Israelites have been in slavery for 400 years and walked the wilderness for 40 after their deliverance. The generation of grumblers and moaners who first came out of Egypt have passed on and a new generation has grown up, led by Joshua, who took the baton from Moses. The Israelites were still living in a camp but they were approaching the land of Canaan, the promised land. Joshua was to lead the people of Israel into this land that God was giving to them. Before going into the land, Joshua sends in two spies. The two spies go in and they hide in Rahab’s house. Later we find out that her house is built into the city wall, and perhaps that is why they chose her house.
The king of Jericho finds out that the spies are there and orders Rahab to give them up. She tells him that the men were there and she didn’t know who they were but they have gone now and she doesn’t know where to. It turns out that Rahab had hidden the men on her roof, thus saving their lives. Once the king and his men had gone, she goes to the Israelites and explains why she did not give them up. Somehow Rahab understands that her city has been given into the hands of the Israelites. She has heard of the God of Israel, how he parted the Red Sea and delivered his people from the hands of the Egyptians. She knows that the God of Israel is powerful and she asks the men, in return for what she has done for them, to spare her family when Jericho is destroyed. They agree and give her instructions for what to do to ensure that neither she nor her family will be killed during the invasion. And she obeys.
The spies escape safely and return to their camp. They give a report of what happened, and Joshua is confident for the mission ahead.
Flick forward a few chapters to Joshua 6 and the story of the fall of Jericho. They do the whole marching around the walls until they fall (a remarkable story in itself). And when the walls fall and they prepare to go in and destroy everything, Joshua shouts a reminder that “Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.” The whole city is literally burnt to the ground, everything destroyed. But Rahab and all her family are saved.
The grace of God is at work here in quite a different way from the previous stories. Rahab, though a prostitute, isn’t painted as morally corrupt. We (modern-day readers) look on her with compassion because we know that women often enter prostitution because there’s no other choice. We see that she is caring woman, she looks after her family and also cares for these strangers. So how is grace evident in her life?
Well. This story gives a glimpse of the grace under which we now live. We are Gentiles (non-Jews, mostly) saved by grace through faith. In his grace, God gives Rahab, a non-Jewish woman, an understanding of who he is. What she does as a result of this is an act of faith. She asks for mercy and she receives it. And she is saved. This is a picture of how we can be saved today. By the grace of God in offering us salvation, through our faith by believing in him. Ephesians 2:8-9.
My favourite part of the story is this though. When the two spies tell Rahab that she will be saved when the Israelites invade, they ask her to hang something out of her window as a sign. The sign is a scarlet cord. The scarlet cord is a beautiful picture of the grace of God that runs through the entire biblical narrative, and it is a symbol of the precious blood of Jesus – the sign on which we depend for our salvation and by which we can all declare that we are saved. The story of Rahab is a foreshadowing of the redemption and salvation that was soon to be available, that is available now, not only for the Jews, but all Gentiles (non-Jews) too! There is no exclusion. No one gets left out. This is amazing grace.
do the write thing 