Turning To The Lord (Joshua 2, 6)

Forty years have passed since Egypt was decimated by God’s mighty hand. News came in and spread that Israel has a God who fights for them. The plagues and defeat of Pharaoh’s army is known. For the last forty years the people in the land of Canaan have known that Israel lives in the wilderness to their south. But they have giants and fortresses no one can defeat. But recently, word has come that Israel was able to defeat the great nations just east of the river Jordan, Midianites, Moabites, Amalekites, and Amorites have all fallen in a crushing defeat. It wasn’t even close. Their God still fights for them.

Fear and terror starts to grip the citizens of Canaan land. How will they defeat an enemy with such a powerful God fighting for them? The citizens of a fortress town of Jericho don’t have to worry just yet. The Jordan river keeps them away.

Among the Israelites, a change of leadership has just taken place. Joshua has stood tall and courageous to lead the people. He sends out two spies to go throughout the land and get a sense of it. When they make it into Jericho, they stay with a prostitute named Rahab. There were lots of evil and immoral people in the land. Women were treated as a commodity and sold for financial gain. No doubt Rahab was one of those and she suffered through it. For some reason unknown to us, she shows hospitality to the Israelite spies. Then, at some point the news gets out that they are spies. Rahab learns of it about the same time as the king of Jericho. He sends soldiers to capture them. But Rahab does something odd.

Imagine having soldiers coming to your house to arrest the guests who you are showing hospitality to. Imagine finding out these men are Israelite spies. Wouldn’t that be terrifying? Fear of them and their God has spread everywhere and you were housing them. Now there is a fear of your own people’s soldiers coming to capture them. But Rahab doesn’t cower in fear. She quickly takes the men onto the roof and hides them in stalks of flax that she arranged in an orderly way. Then she tells the soldiers that the spies left just before dark through the gate.

This is such a fascinating decision. In that moment she chose to change her loyalty from her own wicked people to these spies, but it wasn’t really to them.

Joshua 2:8–14 (ESV) — 8 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. 11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign 13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

After this interaction, Rahab tied together a scarlet cloth to let them down the side of the wall, through a window in her home. Rahab then instructed the men on how to escape, asking only for salvation when Israel destroys her home city. She completely swaps sides. She is a traitor in every sense of the word, but she betrays the dark in order to step into the light. She knows judgment is deserved for her people, and she confesses her belief that the God of the Israelites is the one true God of heaven and earth.

The men agree to her terms and promise her safety. Her scarlett cloth would let the people of Israel know that they should “passover” her house. She will be saved. But can they do that?

Mercy & Judgment

What I find interesting in this whole interchange is the fact that the spies make a deal with someone, a prostitute, in the promised land. They aren’t supposed to do that according to the law.

Deuteronomy 7:1–5 (ESV) — 1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

Deuteronomy 20:16–18 (ESV) — 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.

Moses made it clear that they are to exterminate the people of the land. There are no second chances. Everyone is to be killed for their sins. If they let them live, they will corrupt the Israelites and God would turn on them to destroy them. This just happened with the Midianites and Moabites. They started mixing with wicked people and idolatry led to their destruction.

There is something inherently evil about these people and they must be destroyed.

If that is true, why do these spies let Rahab live? Throughout the conquest of the promised land, Joshua and the people of Israel are not cruel and hateful in their task. They aren’t cold and calloused towards the Canaanites. They understand one very important issue that separates them from everyone else. They trust in the one true God and seek to do His will.
Everyone who does likewise is to be saved from judgment.

Elsewhere throughout the Old Testament, we read some important information.

Exodus 12:48–49 (ESV) — 48 If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. 49 There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”

Leviticus 19:33–34 (ESV) — 33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

God did not have a hatred of the people. His hatred was of their sin. Rahab had turned from that sin and decided to put her trust in the Lord. She chose to exalt God instead of fighting against Him. This is what makes her different from everyone else and able to receive mercy.

As remarkable as it sounds, not many in Canaan would submit themselves to that same fate. Some would cower in fear, some would rise up in rebellion, but almost none would submit to the will of God. They loved their sin too much, and this is why they received judgment instead of mercy.

Rahab is calling for God to extend His hesed, His faithful love, to her and her family as she extends hers to Him. God accepts the offer and shows tremendous love and compassion to an immoral woman who wants to change.

Not only does he accept her, he makes her a part of his special family. Rahab would marry an Israelite. From her would come Boaz, David, and the many kings of Israel. Eventually, the king of kings. Why? Because God wants His message to ring through the ages. He doesn’t want to judge and destroy. He wants to forgive.

Embrace Mercy, Escape Judgment

The picture of Rahab and her family cuddled up in her house, listening to the trumpets sound and the walls crumble around them is frightening. Her little scarlet cloth hanging on the window was not forgotten. God upheld the promise of the spies. She would be saved from the judgment that destroyed everyone she knew outside of her own family.

We are not unlike her. When we hear her story, we should feel drawn to it because every aspect resembles our own.

• Like Rahab, we were terrible sinners lost in the dark and sinful world around us.
• Like Rahab, people came into our lives telling us “judgment is coming”
• Like Rahab, we have a choice to make.

Will we betray those who are still in darkness, those who fight and rage against the God of Israel? Or will we change our allegiance and surrender to the will of God?

In the book of James, Rahab is mentioned. She didn’t just believe that God was all powerful. She responded with faith and faithfulness. She wanted God’s faithfulness so she pledged her own and put her own life on the line to show how serious she was. She ignored the false news that God would destroy her anyways. She didn’t cave into her fear and trepidation. She boldly brought her family in and withstood the storm of living in a dark world until the light came and set her free.

What is your decision? Will you embrace God’s mercy and escape judgment?

Jesus is our Joshua. He is coming to defeat the wicked people around us and set us free from persecution and suffering. We must only choose to be faithful to our words and submit our lives to Him. God will not tolerate idolaters and corrupt people among his own. But he will bless those who turn and remain faithful. Is that you?