Hebrews 11:31: By Faith the Harlot Rahab
2023-09-23
Hebrews 11:31
By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. (Hebrews 11:31)
Consider the original story of Rahab in Joshua 2:1-21. Now it is strange that these men were at a harlot’s house. Normally, anyone who names the name of the LORD should not be found there. However, these were extenuating circumstances, as they were men in hiding.
Ultimately, Rahab knew who these men were, and what nation they were from. When the king’s men came to her, she had to make a choice. Was her allegiance going to be to her king, countrymen, and gods, or was this a new divine appointment from the God of heaven? She knew something of the God of Israel. She heard all about the parting of the Red Sea and the defeat of Sihon and Og.
But it is more than this. See how Rahab referred to God. She used the covenantal name of God Jehovah rather than just “God.” She also stated that God “is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” This is a merism like in Genesis 1:1. She confessed that the LORD God of Israel is the God of everything. She understood the difference between tribal deities and the real God.
Because Rahab accepted the spies with peace and believed in their God, she and her household did not perish with the rest of her countrymen. She had faith in the LORD, and her faith led her to action. What caveat was there in Rahab’s being spared? She had to display the scarlet thread in the window. She would have perished if she forgot it.
Rahab’s faith had to continue for another reason... what if Israel forgot about her? Her faith in the LORD ensured that would not happen. The men communicated through the proper channels, and she was saved. “So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them” (Joshua 2:23). And again, “But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel” (Joshua 6:22-23).
Remember that “her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall” (Joshua 2:15). But what about this? “...it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city” (Joshua 6:20). Rahab was in danger from a human perspective. But by the LORD’s grace, because of her faith, her part of the wall was not breached. She was truly saved. She believed, but God engineered where this harlot lived in advance that He might show grace.
“Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” (James 2:25). Rahab’s faith was demonstrated to the world by how she helped these men in their divine assignment.
It is rather a shame that Rahab bore this name “harlot” after believing in the Lord and being incorporated into the Israelites. “And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho” (Joshua 6:25). She finally loses that stigma here: “And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse” (Matthew 1:5). It sounds like she lived a transformed life. Her son Boaz became a godly man who also married a godly non-Israelite, Ruth. Boaz could understand how a non-Israelite could change and follow the Lord. A few generations later, David was born. King David’s dynasty continued in Judah for centuries, and eventually, our Lord was born from her lineage.
In faith, Rahab received the LORD’s people in peace, and her trusting the LORD rather than fearing her king and countrymen and gods saved her life.