Israel were about to cross the Jordan to take possession of their
inheritance, and in preparation, two spies were sent, commissioned
by Joshua to spy out the land and its doomed inhabitants. Yet
unknown to them, God had already gone before and worked in the heart
of a poor pagan prostitute as only God can. Rahab was her name—a
name which is inscribed prominently in the roll–call of the faithful
(see Heb. 11: 31), and resonates down the ages for the place it
occupies in the genealogy of the Christ Himself (see Matt. 1: 5).
Well we might say with the apostle “O depth of riches both of [the]
wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable his judgments, and
untraceable his ways!” (Rom. 11: 33).
And so the two spies
entered Jericho strangers to everyone within it, but with their
steps directed of God to the harlot’s house. Soon their arrival was
reported to the king, who sent a message to Rahab demanding their
surrender, but she concealed them instead. The reason for her
conduct came out as she talked with the spies under cover of
darkness on the roof of her house. While God had been leading Israel
to the bank of the Jordan opposite to Jericho, He had been working
in Rahab who, with all her house, He designed to save from the
destruction impending over her people. “I know” she said “that
Jehovah has given you the land, and that the dread of you has fallen
on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of
you. For we have heard that Jehovah dried up the waters of the Red
sea before you when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did to the two
kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to
Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. We heard [of it], and our heart
melted, and there remained no more spirit in any man because of you;
for Jehovah your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the
earth beneath” (Josh. 2: 9–11).
What was Jericho, with
its walls and battlements, if the hearts of its defenders had
melted within them? But fear is not faith. Jericho feared—Rahab
feared as well, but she also had faith. She told the spies what she
knew and what she and the rest of her people had heard. All had
heard of the Lord’s actions on behalf of Israel and were afraid, but
all did not know that Jehovah had given them the land. Rahab knew,
and, furthermore she knew and confessed that the Lord their God was
the one true God, the God in heaven above, and the God on earth
beneath. Remarkable knowledge! In the midst of abounding
iniquities, and surrounded with idolatry and all its filthy rites,
this immoral and degraded woman had learnt and knew, that Israel’s
God was the true God, and that He had given them the land. She had
no doubts. Her language was clear and precise: ‘I
know’. How God can teach a soul, and that in a way
that nothing can shake, however unfavourable, humanly speaking, the
surrounding atmosphere might be, is beyond our tiny minds to take
in. ‘I know’! Like the blind beggar who, when his eyes
were opened, brushed away as cobwebs all the specious arguments of
his opponents with his simple and crushing announcement: “One thing
I know, that, being blind [before], now I see” (John 9: 25), so
Rahab, speaking of herself and for herself, unhesitatingly said, “I
know”. “We heard” is not the same as “I know”. What a difference
exists between the two. She had heard, as had her people, but she
also knew, and had given proof of her faith by hiding
the spies under the stalks of flax on her roof. She had taken their
side and God’s side, against her people and her country. The God of
Israel was the God of heaven and of earth. As such He must prevail
and it would be hopeless to resist Him. If He had given Israel the
land, then the doom of those who opposed them was certain. Judgment
on her people and on her land was at hand. She did not doubt it. She
knew it even before a single soldier of the host of Israel had
crossed the Jordan.
Her people could boast
of cities “great and walled up to heaven” (Deut. 1: 28) and “the
sons of Anak” before whom the children of Israel were “as
grasshoppers” (Num. 13: 33), but that one word
I know
(for so it is in the Hebrew original), settled
everything
for her. Hence, after telling the spies what she
knew,
she put before them what she desired. Nothing could
satisfy Rahab but the promise of salvation for herself and her
family. She spoke as one over whom an awful doom was hanging. A
vague hope or a fair speech, resting on no real foundation, could
not satisfy her. She wanted an assurance on which she could rest,
and a certain sign to which she could turn. But the men were
strangers to her. What did she know of them? Nothing. She would,
therefore, bring God in, and make Him a party to the matter: “And
now, I pray you, swear to me by Jehovah, since I have dealt kindly
with you, that ye will also deal kindly with my father’s house, and
give me a certain sign, that ye will let my father live, and my
mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that belong to
them, and deliver our souls from death” (Josh. 2: 12, 13). Uncertainty
she could not tolerate, certainty of deliverance from the coming
judgment she craved. And by making God a party to the agreement made
between herself and these strangers, she evidenced her confidence in
the faithfulness of their God. What she asked she got. She asked for
a solemn engagement on their part. They gave it her on the
condition that she kept their visit a secret. She asked for a
certain sign by which safety would be ensured to her and to all in
her house. She got that as well, for the men said to her: “We will
be quit of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear. Behold,
when we come into the land, thou shalt bind in the window this line
of scarlet thread by which thou hast let us down; and thou shalt
gather to thee in the house thy father, and thy mother, and thy
brethren, and all thy father’s household; and it shall be, that
whoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, —his
blood shall be upon his head, and we shall be innocent; but every
one who shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be upon our
head, if any hand be upon him. And if thou make known this our
business, we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us
swear” (vs 17–20).
So the men departed.
As yet there was no appearance of the coming invasion. The spies had
to hide three days in the mountains before they could venture to
cross the Jordan. Would they ever even reach the river, and rejoin
the camp of Israel—for the city had been aroused, and the country
was being searched to find them? Again, was the danger of an
invasion really imminent? Looking at the Jordan now in full flood,
the men of Jericho might have taken heart. They might have very
naturally thought that the river must surely subside before the army
of Israel could reach them. But Rahab knew she must act now, and so
she put the scarlet line in the window in accord with the word of
the spies. Anybody, everybody might see it, but only she knew what
it was the confession and the sign of—the confession that she sought
salvation from the coming judgment, the sign that she would be
delivered from the doom of her people. Did she wait until the city
was under siege, and all hope of its relief was cut off before
putting the scarlet line in the window?
No! How or when Jericho would be captured she had no idea,
but as to its capture she was clear. She had got the certain sign
and so “she bound the scarlet line in the window” (v 21), confident
that if the thread was there, then safety in the midst of judgment
was assured to her.
Her confidence was
soon put to the test. The Jordan was opened up by divine power, and
the host of Israel unexpectedly entered the land and surrounded
Jericho (see Josh. 3 – 6). For six days they marched round it. Not a
shout from the people was heard, not an arrow was shot into the
city. For six days these tactics must have appeared to those within
as a show of power without reality. The walls were just as strong on
the sixth day as they were on the first. One can fancy the
beleaguered garrison regaining confidence as they saw the victors
over the Amorite power east of Jordan acting in that fashion day
after day. Did Rahab remove the scarlet line when she saw the city
still intact? No! She knew the judgment would surely come, whatever
might be the delay, and she knew her only hope of safety lay in the
scarlet line being seen in the window.
But when would the
crisis arrive? Who in Jericho knew? God had fixed the day, and had
acquainted Israel with it, but no one knew within the city walls.
The seventh morning dawned. The host of Israel again went round the
city doomed to destruction, but this time seven times instead of
once. For the seventh time the trumpets were blown, and then for the
first time the people shouted, and the walls of Jericho fell down
flat. But where was Rahab? Her house was “upon the city–wall” (Josh.
2: 15). The walls fell down at the shout of the people, but her
house must still have stood intact for the spies went into it, and
brought out into a place of safety all who were inside (see Josh. 6:
22, 23). That her house remained standing, though the walls right
and left had fallen down flat, demonstrates that God watched over
her at that solemn moment and over all in her house. She found, and
they found, that there was security and salvation from destruction
for all who took shelter behind the scarlet thread.
At such a moment as
the capture of a city, the assailants are not apt to be careful in
their actions, but no one in Rahab’s house had a hair of their head
hurt, or lost one thing that they possessed. The spies “brought out
Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all
that she had” (v 23). The word of the spies was proved to be true.
The thread was all that was needed. What a thing it is to be safe
from judgment in the very place where it is being executed! The way
of security had been pointed out to Rahab: her part was to obey, and
to trust. She did what the spies told her, and she trusted what they
said. She found it was all that was required. She had put the
scarlet line in the window, and she waited in confidence behind it.
Those outside the city could see there was one within it who counted
implicitly on the promise of God.
So should it be with
men now. Judgment is coming on the unbelieving and ungodly. We know
who is to reign, and who is to have everything put under His feet.
God, who has revealed this to us, has told us of the way of
salvation in the words addressed to the Philippian jailer: “Believe
on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house” (Acts
16: 31). There is security now for all who avail themselves of it.
Rahab asked for herself and for her kindred. She desired salvation
for them all, though at that point perhaps none of them knew what
she knew. She learnt that they could be saved as well as herself,
but only if they availed themselves of the shelter of the scarlet
thread. They could be saved with her, but none of them could be
saved if they stayed outside her house.
Every believer on
earth now is in a position similar to that of Rahab between the
departure of the spies and the fall of Jericho. The world may
discern no catastrophe impending. Peace and safety may be its cry,
but the believer, like Rahab, knows otherwise. Rahab knew she was
safe only when she had got the scarlet line bound in her window.
Similarly, the believer knows now that he is safe because he has
trusted Christ, and has trusted to the efficacy of His blood. Each
member of Rahab’s family could be assured of safety when he or she
had crossed the threshold of her house—safe not simply because Rahab
believed the spies, but because each one had taken refuge with her
behind that scarlet thread. None could be lost who kept inside that
house. What a company it was! Each one morally no better than anyone
else in Jericho (and some possibly worse) and yet they were marked
out as separated from all the rest through having taken refuge from
coming judgment behind the cord in the window. Behind that line, and
within that house, was the only place of security, not because of
the position of the house, or because it was well built, but simply
and solely because of the scarlet line which was kept displayed in
the appointed place. So it is with Christ and the believer.
What a simple
illustration of the way of deliverance from eternal punishment is
given by the history of Rahab and her household! “By faith Rahab the
harlot did not perish along with the unbelieving, having received
the spies in peace” (Heb. 11: 31). Remarkable faith!
