The spies and Rahab
2
📚And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two spies secretly, saying, “Go view the land, and Jericho”. And they went and entered the house of a prostitute, named Rahab, and lodged there.2:1 Shittim was east of the Jordan River in the plains of Moab. Jericho was a very ancient city eight kilometers west of the Jordan. It was a walled and fortified city which stood in the path of Israel’s invasion route into Canaan. Like all of the nations in Canaan the people of Jericho were hopelessly sinful and depraved (Lev 18:24-26; 20:23; Deut 18:9-12). God used Israel as an instrument of judgment on them.
Yet there was mercy for anyone who turned to the Lord in repentance and faith. The experience of Rahab, herself a sinful woman, shows this (Josh 6:17; Heb 11:31; Jam 2:25). Rahab became one of the ancestors of Boaz into whose line King David was born (Ruth 4:21-22; Matt 1:5-6). From the line of David our Lord Jesus Christ was born. This shows us the greatness of God’s grace and how He can use a person who believes in Him. We are not told why the spies entered Rahab’s house. It is probable that she saw them first and invited them in so she could make an agreement with them that would save her life. Some Jewish scholars of olden times taught that Rahab was an innkeeper. If so, this might account for the spies going into her place.⚜
2 📚And the king of Jericho was told, saying, “Look, tonight men from the children of Israel have come here to search out the country”. 3 📚And the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house; for they have come to search out the whole country”.
4 📚And the woman took the two men and hid them and spoke like this: “Some men came to me, but I did not know from where they came. 5 📚And it so happened that about the time the gates were being shut, when it was dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Go after them quickly, for you can catch up with them”.
2:5 Rahab told a deliberate lie to protect the spies. She had come to believe in the power of the one true God (Josh 2:9-11). The New Testament commends her for her faith (Heb 11:31; Jam 2:25), but not for her lying. God does not need the help of man’s lies to carry out His purposes. And no doubt God could have saved the lives of these spies without it. But even in lying Rahab showed her faith in the LORD. And faith is very powerful with God.⚜
6 📚But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had spread out on the roof. 7 📚And the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan, to the fords. And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate.
8 And before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 📚and she said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that your terror has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. 10 📚For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 📚And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts melted, and no one had any courage left, because of you. For the LORD your God is God in heaven above, and in earth below.
2:8-11 Rahab’s words gave the spies a knowledge of the state of mind of the people of Jericho and of all of Canaan’s people. Of course this was encouraging information for Joshua (v 24).⚜
12 📚Now, therefore, since I have showed you kindness, please swear to me by the LORD that you will also show kindness to my father’s household, and give me a true token 13 that you will save alive my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death”.
14 📚And the men answered her, “Our life for yours, if you do not tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the LORD has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you”.
15 📚Then she let them down by a rope through the window; for her house was on the town wall, and she lived on the wall.
2:15 The outer wall of Jericho may have been as much as 30 feet high, and several feet thick. Rahab’s house may have been built between this wall and an inner wall, with a window over or through the outer wall.⚜
16 📚And she said to them, “Go to the mountain, so that the pursuers will not come across you, and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; and afterwards you can go your way”.
17 📚And the men said to her, “We will be blameless about this oath to you which you have made us swear. 18 📚See, when we come into the land, you must tie this scarlet cord in the window from which you let us down. And you must bring your father and your mother and your brothers, and all your father’s household, to your home.
2:18 Rahab’s house was the only safe place in Jericho. The scarlet line, the colour of blood, may speak symbolically of protection through sacrifice (Ex 12:7, 13; Heb 9:19-22). We are saved from the penalty of sin through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 9:28). His blood protects believers from eternal destruction. Observe that Rahab’s faith could be a means of salvation to all in her family (Josh 6:25).⚜
19 📚And it will be like this: whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his head, and we will be blameless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood will be on our head, if a hand is laid on him. 20 📚But if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free of this oath to you which you have made us swear”.
21 📚And she said, “Let it be according to your words”. And she sent them away, and they left. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
22 📚And they went away and came to the mountain and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had gone back. And the pursuers looked for them everywhere along the way but did not find them. 23 So the two men returned, came down from the mountain, crossed the Jordan and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him everything that had happened to them. 24 📚And they said to Joshua, “The LORD has definitely delivered the whole land into our hands, for all the inhabitants of the country are fainting because of us”.