Rahab

[Josh. 2:1] And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.
Jericho, about 5 miles west of the Jordan River, guards the main southern ford across the Jordan. It thus commands a key defense position in the Jordan Valley. From its position as the eastern gateway to the land, it would be a good place to get an overall impression of the entire land, or at least the central part of it. The hills where the spies concealed themselves for three days, doubtless with the help of provisions supplied by Rahab, lie about 21/2 miles west of the city. Joshua 1-2:1, at this time, numerous small nations lived on the far side of the Jordan River, residing in cities or on hilltops surrounded by high walls. Joshua and the Israelites were camped east of the Jordan, opposite Jericho, a city with fortifying walls so thick that houses were built in and on top of them. G-d instructs Joshua to cross the Jordan and invade this seemingly impenetrable city. From there, they could proceed north against the Canaanites and then south against the Amorites. Joshua’s first step in the plan is to send two spies on a reconnaissance mission. The place they happen to choose to spend the night belongs to a woman on whom the whole success of their mission will hinge – a prostitute.
Rahab was well known to the New Covenant writers as a woman of exemplary faith in Hebrews 11:31, who help to the spies was acceptable to G-d in James 2:25. She was revered as one of the four women mentioned by Matthew 1:5 in the genealogy of Y’Shua. Jewish traditions also held Rahab in high esteem as a non-Jewish convert to Judaism. According to Jewish legend, she married Joshua and was the mother of priest and prophets in Israel. She was a Canaanite who, with her extended family became a part of Israel, after she helps the spies. This is an indication that the Canaanites were not all to be labeled as wicked (Deut. 9:4). The Rahab group is a reminder of the fact that there were large bodies of potential allies in that decadent and corrupt city-state society. Rahab and her family seem to have been from the poorer segment of the Jericho society, who welcomed an opportunity for freedom. And she probably out of economic necessity earned a living as a prostitute. Joining this kind of outcast group because of the poverty of her family. In later Israel this was not allowed (Lev. 19:29). Becoming a prostitute because of poverty is a common thing in many countries of Asia in our own time. When the Israelites left Egypt, Rahab was ten years old, and it is said that she played the harlot the whole of the forty years that the Israelites spent in the wilderness When the King of Jericho is alerted of the Israelite spies lodging with Rahab, he immediately sends orders requiring Rahab to surrender them. In response, despite the protection she would have been assured by her own Amorite nation had she complied with the king, she chooses instead to risk treason and hide the two foreign spies on the roof under some stacks of flax. When the king’s men arrive, she tells them that the Israelites have already left, and she directs them out of the city on a fruitless chase. In the prostitution in the fertility cults, her services go far beyond what is ordinarily to be expected of a prostitute. Matt. 1:5 & 1 Chron. 2:1 state Rahab to be the mother of Boaz, the husband of Ruth, therefore in the genealogy of Y’Shua. The capture of Jericho would have taken place four generations before David, 12th century. Heb. 11:31 make Rahab an example of faith. James 2:25 make her and example of meritorious works. In Judaism, Rahab became the prototype of the proselyte who abandoned a life of sin to accept the faith of Israel. Rahab is also presented as a living example of the effectiveness of Israel’s prostitutions when Israel is faithful to its calling. A woman who found dignity and fulfillment by choosing a different kind of society where there was no economically compelled degradation or dehumanization of sex. So Rahab, a harlot in Canaan, left her former idols who, it was believed, gave bread, water, wool, flax, oil, and wine (Hosea. 2:5-8), and put her faith in Yahweh who in truth gave these things. Rahab was a paradigm of hope, showing that the old idols, the old corrupt ways of the past, could be given up. The contrast between Rahab at the bottom of the social scale and the king and nobles of Jericho at the top illustrates well what Y'Shua said: “Harlots go into the kingdom of G-d before you.” (Matt. 21:31).
The woman took the two men, and hid them, literally, “him”, that is, each of them in separate places, of course previous to the appearance of the royal messengers and in anticipation of a speedy search after her guests. Demonstrating her faith and trust in their G-d. According to Eastern manners, which pay an almost superstitious respect to a woman’s apartment, the royal messengers did not demand admittance to search but asked her to bring the foreigners out.
The gates of all Oriental cities are closed at sunset, after which there is no possibility either of admission or egress. A direct lie. Rom. 3:8; Heb. 11:31; and James 2:25. Is a common vice among heathen people, Rahab was probably unconscious of its moral guilt, especially as she resorted to it as a means for screening her guests; and she might deem herself bound to do it by the laws of Eastern hospitality, which make it a point of honor to preserve the greatest enemy, if he has once eaten one’s salt. Judged by the divine law, her answer was a sinful expedient; but her infirmity being united with faith, she was graciously pardoned and her service accepted.
The flax kept on her roof suggests that her family lived by agriculture outside the city. The roof was flat and during the dry season it was used for a storage place and a resting place on the hot days. The flax bundles were hauled up on the roof through the window and by the rope mentioned in v. 15. After flax stalks were soaked and their fibers loosened, they were spread out to dry. Beating and combing spun into fine yarn and threads and woven into linen fabrics separated dry fibers. After lying awhile, it is piled up in numerous little stacks, which, from the luxuriant growth of the flax, rise to a height of three or four feet. It would produce linen for priests’ garments, and for the upper-class people of Jericho (Isa. 3:16, 23.) Behind some of these stacks Rahab concealed the spies.
She won recognition by biblical writers because she trusted in the G-d of Israel more than she trusted her won king of Jericho. She had heard what G-d had done for Israel at the Red Sea and in defeating the two kings of the trans-Jordan (8-12). And she demonstrated her faith by receiving the spies and sending them out another way. 6:25 notes her actions and contrasts her response to that of Achan.
No guilt should be assigned, therefore, to her treason in abandoning her people, who like herself had great reason for trusting the G-d of the Hebrews. When it comes to choosing between serving G-d or a local king, the answer must always be to serve the higher power, G-d (Acts 4:19).
Her lie, on the other hand, cannot be so easily dismissed. She said, ‘I don’t know which way they went.’ That was deliberately false. Romans 3:8 warns us not to say, ‘let us do evil that good may result.’ Neither should we argue, especially from a description or a narrative passage, that a text validates deceit under certain conditions.
The so-called dutiful lie dismissed how precious the truth is in G-d’s sight. Even lies told for very good purposes are not free from divine disapproval. Rahab’s untruth allowed the two spies to escape harm; this does not therefore justify such a method. G-d is not reduced to unholy acts of fulfill His will. G-d allowed His purposes to be fulfilled in this most unusual manner, because His grace can operate in spite of the sinful plotting of men and women. Untruth cannot be vindicated simply because it is closely tied to the total result.
We cannot say that protecting innocent lives is a greater good than the demands always to tell the truth. Scripture nowhere advocates or allows for such chain of command. To say that lying is a lesser evil than being involuntarily implicated in murder is again an artificial and subjective construct. We need to follow all of G-d’s Word and that Word involves respect for both life and truth, as difficult as that is in a word that often pits one moral absolute against another.
We must not form our own subjective personal priorities in assigning what we believe is the greater good or lesser evil. On the other hand, we may not surrender innocent lives just because an army or police force demands it. Rahab should have hidden the spies well and then refused to answer the question whether she was hiding them. It is possible to maintain a position of non-conflicting absolutes. G-d will provide a way to avoid the conflicts (1 Cor. 10:13).
The harlot, sacrificing her own nation, sides with the spies whom she perceives as men of G-d, siding with the spies being akin to siding with G-d Himself. The men pledge to protect her entire family, as long as she does not disclose their mission. With a crimson rope, Rahab lowers the spies through her window, which is situated in the wall of Jericho itself. Joshua and his men were grateful both for her military information and her protection of the two spies.
Rahab’s confession of faith begins with the confident assertion “I know”. What this Canaanite woman knew was what Israel had been taught: “Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that the L-rd is G-d in heaven above and on earth beneath: there is no other” (Deut. 4:39). Rahab is thus the first representative in Canaan of “all the peoples of the earth” to say “I know that the L-rd your G-d is G-d indeed.”
Rahab believe them because of this self cursing formula which guaranties the promise they gave her. This was a solemn pledge—a virtual oath, though the name of G-d is not mentioned; and the words were added, not as a condition of their fidelity, but as necessary for her safety, which might be endangered if the private agreement was divulged.
In many Oriental cities houses are built on the walls with overhanging windows; in others the town wall forms the back wall of the house, so that the window opens into the country. Rahab’s was probably of this latter description, and the cord or rope sufficiently strong to bear the weight of a man. It has been suggested that Rahab’s house was built across the gap between an inner and an outer wall, which would explain the peculiar phrase “in the wall and between the walls”.
She bound the scarlet line in the window, probably soon after the departure of the spies. It was not formed, as some suppose, into network, as a lattice, but simply to hang down the wall. Its red color made it conspicuous, and it was thus a sign and pledge of safety to Rahab’s house, as the bloody mark on the lintels of the houses of the Israelites in Egypt to that people.
Rahab dwelled in Israel unto this day—a proof that this book was written not long after the events related. The climax of the story of the victory at Jericho is not the destruction of the doomed city, but the salvation of the entire extended family of Rahab from the flames. They are at first placed outside the camp at Gilgal. Later, when fully instructed in the ways of the new society, they are accepted as full members of Israel. For this saved Canaanite remnant the trumpets blast heralded the day of salvation.
Symbolizes by its color, of safety through sacrifice. Heb. 9:19-22.