By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who
were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
Whenever we come to popular or well-known biblical accounts, we need to be more careful than we might otherwise presume. We know this story and so we are tempted to
read through it too quickly. When David and Goliath, Jonah, John 3:16 come up and we think, “Oh I know all about that”, we might just miss something.
Rahab is also very well known. But what is this story about? Why is it here? What is the point?
It seems that Joshua chapter two is best known for its ethical quandary of whether or not Rahab was sinning when she lied to the men who came to her door asking about
the spies. That seems to get the most attention; Was it right or wrong, sinful or not, for Rahab to lie? Is that why God put this here to give ethics classes a biblical example for debate? It is an interesting discussion but we will leave it for another time.
The spies are locked up with Rahab and cannot get out at the end of verse 7, how will they escape, what will happen to them? But the answer does not come right away,
it does not come until verse 15, we have to wade through 8 verses before we get to the escape.
And that is what we usually do, wade through quickly and get to what we think is the point of the story, the lie and eventual escape of the spies and that is why we
often miss the point of the story.
The chapter is structured in a chiasm. A chiasm is a literary device that seeks to make clear the main point of a text.
This particular chiasm has five parts. Picture them in your head, numbers 1 through 5, vertically. The first and fifth points correspond, there is something about
them that makes them parallel one another. In the first we have Joshua’s commission of the spies, and then in the fifth we have the return of the spies to Joshua.
The second and fourth sections match up as well. In the second we have the arrival of the spies and their protection, and then in the fourth section we have the escape
of the spies and the protection of Rahab.
This leaves the third section, verses 8-14, standing by itself, because that is where we find the climax of the text, the most important aspect of chapter 2, and what
we find in that section is Rahab’s confession of faith.
And this confession of faith comes even before we find out how the spies escape, because this is the most important part of the narrative and what the Holy Spirit
wants us to spend our time discussing, not whether Rahab needed to repent of lying to the Jericho detective squad. (Davis, pg.25-26)
The NT never speaks about Rahab’s lie but it does on two occasions, Hebrews 11:31, and James 2:25, speak about her faith. That, according to the NT, is the point,
the confession of her faith, and so it should be ours when studying this woman.
As the people of God prepare to go into the promised land, as they prepare to believe the promise of God, the Lord will strengthen them in the profession of faith,
not only from a woman but a very sinful woman, and not just a sinful woman, but a GENTILE sinful woman.
Chapter two is not necessary if all that the Holy Spirit wanted to do was to tell the story of how Israel went into the land and took it captive. We could have moved
from chapter one to chapter 3 and never have missed a beat. But we are getting used to this, at least I hope so.
Because what is on display here, is the grace of God. What stands out is God’s love for sinners, always gloriously set before us, and here in the midst of the plans
for physical warfare, we have the confession of a pagan harlot and to God’s marvelous plan to save the world.
Rahab confesses the great power of God, the great power that everyone in the world is talking about. The great acts of redemption, the historical events of salvation
are being proclaimed in the earth.
The Red Sea drying up, the defeat of Sihon and Og. The objective work of God in time, in history…the mighty works of God for His people, Rahab says nothing about her
subjective feelings, nothing about her personal experiences, nothing about what she feels in her heart of hearts and nothing about her experience when she accepted Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. There is nothing subjective about dead Egyptian soldiers
floating around in the water and nothing subjective about Sihon and Og being destroyed.
This is very, very important. God communicates his plan to save sinners through events and then tells us His purpose and the meaning of the events. For example, God
communicates the victory over sin, death and hell through the resurrection of His Son from the dead. God brings about the event and then tells us what that event means.
Sometimes I think liberal folks understand this better than we do. That is why they attack the historical validity of God’s work and of the resurrection as well as
the events mentioned here in our text including the fall of Jericho. Liberals say these things did not really happen.
If these are just ideas, concepts, stories that communicate some kind of morality or ideology, that is one thing but if they really took place and if this is really
the communication of God and if Jesus really resurrected then they have to bow the knee to this God, which is the very thing they refuse to do.
Our text is clear. 40 years after the deliverance from Egypt, everyone is still talking about what God did to Pharaoh and his army and so much do they know this really
happened, it is not a story, it is not a fable…it is history and that is why Jericho is locked up in fear. 40 years later and they are brought to trembling at the power of God.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father, forgive me for the times I so easily ignore the promptings of Your Spirit so that I might do what I want instead of walking in humble obedience
to You and Your Word. I pray that the hard teachings of Holy Scripture would break up the fallow ground of my heart and that the Word of truth would grow there unhindered, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Song: Come Ye Sinners