The book of Joshua records the story of a very famous prostitute.
Just before crossing the Jordan River, Joshua sent two men to go and spy out Jericho. Israel’s reputation had proceeded them, however, and their reception in Jericho was less than welcome, so they went to the only person who they knew would receive them without question: “So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.” (Josh 2:1 NIV).
Despite the fact that she was a prostitute, this Rahab was one special girl. The messengers knew that men came and went from Rahab’s home regularly, and when she stood up against her own people to defend their common enemy by hiding the spies and lied for the king’s messengers, they believed her! “Yes, the men came to me … At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went.” (Josh 2:4-6 NIV).
She would later let the spies out of her window by a rope, for her home was on the outer city wall, and send them off with instructions to hide in the hills for three days. But she did so only after securing a promise from them: “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death.” (Josh 2:12-13 NIV)
The spies solemnly promised that if she tied the cord, the same one that had lowered them to the ground, in the wall-side window of her home, everyone in her house at the time would be spared. On the day the walls of Jericho fell, they brought Rahab and her family out of the rubble alive: “So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.” (Josh 6:23 NIV)
And so it was that Rahab and her family were saved. End of story.
Or is it?
Rahab’s name is actually mentioned several other times in the Bible, and from these texts, we learn that there are four important lessons that this famous prostitute can teach us today!
1. Keep your promises!
It would have been easy enough for the spies to break their promise to Rahab. After all, what would be the purpose to saving the life of a mere prostitute? Israel had plenty of these, they certainly didn’t need one more!
So why did they keep their promise?
In Bible times, promises were considered to be a bit more binding than they are in our day and age. Here’s what God had to say about promise-keeping: “This is what the Lord commands: When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.” (Num 30:1b-2 NIV)
God is our ultimate example of promise-keeping. The Bible records that He keeps all His promises: “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” (Josh 21:45 NIV); and “The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.” (Ps 145:13 NIV)
So the spies kept their promise because that’s what people did in those days.
But let’s take a look at the long-term consequences of promise-keeping in this story. The next time Rahab’s name is mentioned in the Bible is in the book of Matthew, when her name appears in the genealogy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.” (Matt 1:5-6 NIV)
When the spies kept their promise to Rahab, they contributed to the birth of the great King David, and even to the birth of Jesus Himself!
Friends, let’s follow the example of the honorable spies! Let’s be true to our word, just as God is true to His!
Join us next week for the two other important lessons we can learn from the prostitute Rahab: LESSONS FROM JOSHUA, Part 5: What a Prostitute can Teach us, Part B
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, www.scripturalnuggets.org, with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org.
(To access the entire “Lessons From Joshua” mini-series, please click here.)