Jericho (whose name means
fragrance) was a city of
vast strength and material riches in a position of exceeding
loveliness (see Num. 13: 27, 28; Deut. 34: 3; Josh. 6: 1, 24; 7:
21). As such, it is a figure of this world—attractive in so many
ways and confident in its own strength—yet devoted to judgment by
the word of God. Thus one day Christ will come from heaven with His
holy myriads, and in flaming fire execute judgment on the peoples of
this earth (see 2 Thess. 1: 7, 8; Jude vs. 14, 15). He will
overthrow man’s world and set up His own glorious kingdom and reign
for a thousand years. That coming destruction of the world–system is
typified by Israel’s war of extermination against the Canaanites
(see Deut. 7: 16; 20: 16, 17) led by one whose Hebrew name is
Joshua, but who in Greek
would be known as Jesus.
Now it has pleased God that two thousand years
should pass by since the death of His Son. The judgment long
foretold (see Jer. 30: 7; Matt. 24–25) still tarries and the kingdom
of Christ is not set up in power on the earth. Because of this, men
scoff “where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet. 3: 4) and mock
the Bible as a collection of myths from a more superstitious age.
And yet there is a purpose in those long years of apparent
delay—indeed, a
double end in view.
On the one hand, it is the will of God that His people should learn
practically what this world is, and, on the other hand, that certain
characteristics in the world should be fully developed. Thus, while
it is only eleven days journey from Horeb to Kadesh–barnea (see
Deut. 1: 2), forty years of wilderness experience had to elapse
before the nation entered the land. The object of the wilderness was
to teach Israel dependence (see Deut. 8: 15, 16)—and in the same
way, the Christian lives in the world as having both his hopes and
his resources elsewhere. God’s purpose for His saints is reigning
with Christ and so faith reaches beyond the present and looks for
the glory and the kingdom. The believer knows that the present ruler
of this world will be overthrown, and that Christ
will
take the throne, and this is what enables him to pass through this
scene with a proper judgment of what surrounds him.
Again, in the purposes of God, the world’s ways
must reach their full development and certain characteristics of
evil must progress to completion before Christ comes to the earth in
judgment. Hence, since the judgment has not yet fallen, it may be
said, “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen. 15: 16).
We get a sense of the advanced Canaanite iniquity from Lev. 18 where
incest, bigamy, adultery, human sacrifice, homosexuality and
bestiality are described, such that “the land vomiteth out its
inhabitants” (v25). How far this present scene must similarly
degenerate (spiritually as well as morally) before God intervenes,
we can only wonder—but it should at least cause us to rejoice in His
long–suffering and mercy. Judgment is God’s strange work (see Is.
28: 21), for He “is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
abundant in loving–kindness” (Ps. 103: 8). However, He is also “of
purer eyes than to behold evil” (Hab. 1: 13), and therefore has
already “set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth
in righteousness by [the] man whom he has appointed” (Acts 17: 31).
With these preliminary considerations in mind,
we follow the two spies that Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho (see
Josh. 2: 1). Everything attached to their mission of espionage was
necessarily hidden work—just as in this day a secret work of God in
the Gospel is in progress, for “the wind blows where it will, and
thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it
goes: thus is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3: 8). It
is also of note that these agents of Joshua came in the evening:
“Behold, men have come hither
to–night” (Josh. 2:
2, my emphasis). This last fact is surely suggestive of Gospel work
at the end of a long day of grace, with the dark clouds of judgment
already gathering. Jericho was doomed, but in it was a vessel of
mercy prepared for glory (see Rom. 9: 23), a brand to be literally
plucked from the fire (see Zech. 3: 2).
The two spies were directed by God to the very
house in the city where the prepared heart was to be found, for
those who act in faith do not waste time and are led by God to the
right places and persons. Being a prostitute, Rahab’s house would be
a most unlikely one in which to find the fear of the Lord, but God
never makes mistakes. Some Christians, like the disciples in John 4:
27 or the Jews in Acts 11: 3, find the wideness of grace very
difficult to stomach. They may well delight in accounts of
remarkable converts on the other side of the globe, but they are
secretly repelled by the thought of
actually sitting down
with persons not of their own culture and class. And yet the Word of
God is emphatic that it is the tax–gatherers and harlots (the
despised of society) that are more likely to enter into blessing
than the morally upright (see Matt. 21: 31)! The Lord Himself was
characterised by touching the untouchable, eating with the immoral
and speaking to the ostracised (see Luke 5: 13; 15: 2; John 4: 27).
How rightly the apostle John could observe, “we have contemplated
his glory …
full of grace and
truth” (John 1: 14, my emphasis).
Standing with Rahab upon the flat roof of her
house (see Josh. 2: 8) and looking around, we learn a lesson for our
own times. Mark the security of the fortress: its high stone walls,
and its great bronze gates. Take in the surrounding plains filled
with ripening corn, and the nearby hillsides purple with fruitful
vines, for it is the time of harvest (see Josh. 3: 15). Prosperity
and hope of increasing greatness abound, and the expectation of the
future fills the hearts of Jericho’s inhabitants. How little
therefore does the world dream that the sickle which is about to
reap the harvest is a sickle of judgment! The business of the city,
its commerce and its luxury, the eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, birth and death, go on as in former generations
(see Luke 17: 27). How solemn then to hear the divine warning that
“when they may say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes
upon them” (1 Thess. 5: 3)!
Note, however, that is not when men may
think peace and
safety, but “when they may
say” (my emphasis).
Jericho was “shut up and was barred” (Josh. 6: 1) and apparently safe,
but inside all was in turmoil. The appearance and assertion of
confidence is often not a true reflection of the heart and mind when
faced with the Word of God. Jericho might have looked secure, but
the report that they had heard had had an effect. Thus “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). The sneer of unbelief and
its destructive effects is undeniable but so is the power of a
testimony to Christ’s coming and kingdom which God’s children live
out. When a believer testifies by the manner of his life to the
reality of Christ’s coming (see 1 John 3: 3), men are unnerved.
Doctrinal intelligence convinces no man, but practical behaviour is
unanswerable. The children of Israel had no battering rams or siege
towers in their armoury—and logic therefore dictated that Jericho
was secure behind her walls. However, what the men of Jericho had
heard about the children of Israel had found its mark. With the mass
it produced an uncertain fear, but with Rahab, it resulted in
authentic faith, for while all had heard, only she
said, “I know that
Jehovah has given you the land” (Josh. 2: 9). The report produced
but dread and paralysis in the men of Jericho, but Rahab reacted by
making bold and audacious demands for herself and her family. In
this she displayed the same great faith that the Canaanitish woman
of Matthew 15 exhibited in pressing her case with the Lord (see vs.
21–28), when she knew she had no rights whatsoever but cast herself
simply on His mercy.
The two spies that Rahab had received into her
house were the exponents of their expectations: they came to
Jericho, not to make it their home, but to spy it out and to be
gone. Thus the Christian is sent into the world, not to settle
there, but to be a witness for God and to Christ’s coming and
kingdom. Satan cannot destroy the truth, but he nullifies its power
wherever the testimony of God’s people becomes in word only and
lacks the energy of faith. Christians sometimes wonder why their
testimony is ineffective, but the problem is not in finding an
answer to the question, but facing up to the discrepancy between
what they profess and their actual manner of living. We can be sure
that Rahab never had men like these two spies under her roof before!
Jericho was of no interest to them, except as devoted to
destruction. What kind of spies, then, are we? In NT language, if we
are “known and read of all men” (2 Cor. 3: 2), what is the message
that is being read? Lot was in great earnest in preaching to his
family, but the message of his life had
already been read
and, tragically, “he was as if he jested” (Gen. 19: 14)!
Once Rahab had opened her door to the two
spies, she immediately provoked the opposition of the king of
Jericho: “And the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring forth
the men that have come to thee, who have come into thy house: for
they have come to search out all the land” (Josh. 2: 3). There was
hardly anything unusual about men coming to the house of a harlot,
but these were no ordinary men to provoke the ire of the king. With
similar rage will the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4: 4) view any
intrusion into his domain, and he will bring all his energies to
bear in seeking to snuff out any testimony to Christ and His coming
kingdom. Thus, the king of Jericho’s men pursued after the spies
“the way to the Jordan, to the fords” (Josh. 2: 7). The world
delights to present itself as a decent, reasonable and tolerant
system, but bring in Christ and you will soon be faced with the
gnashing of teeth.
It is delightful to see, even at this early
stage, that the authority of the king over the soul of Rahab is
already broken. She has not yet appealed to the spies regarding her
future, nor had time to speak to them of her beliefs and hopes, but
nonetheless she “concealed the two men” (v4), and “secreted them
under the stalks of flax, which she had laid out on the roof” (v6).
Thus “was not … Rahab the harlot
justified on the principle of works, when she had received the
messengers and put [them] forth by another way?” (James 2: 25). That
does not excuse her subsequent lie to the king’s messengers, but it
is her faith, not her falsehood that is commended: “by faith Rahab
the harlot did not perish along with the unbelieving, having
received the spies in peace” (Heb. 11: 31). Men paint pictures of
themselves that flatter; God tells the truth about our characters
and points out what belongs to our new nature and what does not. The
grand distinguishing characteristic of Rahab, however, was that
she had faith.
Canaanite, harlot and liar she may have been, but she had been “born
again” (1 Pet. 1: 23) and was headed for blessing and not judgment.
By faith this poor heathen believed that the
days of her city were numbered, and her allegiance was no longer
therefore with Jericho’s king, but to Joshua and the Lord’s people.
She had realised that the two spies were the messengers of the God
of heaven, and her conviction was, “I know that Jehovah has given
you the land” (Josh. 2: 9). As with the man of John 9, “I know” is
an immovable assurance in the heart of the child of faith. And when
the heart is at rest towards God then faith can become active
towards men. Thus, the testimony of the spies not only filled Rahab
with assurance as to her own salvation, but gave her energy for the
lives of her whole family. She believed judgment would presently
fall on the city and her request was therefore “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). Nothing was to be kept
back: all that she had was to be placed in the hands of God. For the
fulfilment of this desire she sought a sign that was certain, and in
response, the spies simply gave her their assurance that “our lives
shall pay for yours, if ye do not make this our business known; and
it shall be when Jehovah shall give us the land, that we will deal
kindly and truly with thee” (v14). This is truly remarkable. All she
had was their word, and yet it was certain, and she believed them.
In a similar way we have the bare word of God for our confidence,
and on it we rely for our eternal blessing. Thus “Abraham believed
God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4: 3). Some
sneer that this makes salvation too easy, but the testimony of God’s
own Word (which ought to settle the matter) is that “The word is
near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of
faith, which we preach: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised
him from among [the] dead, thou shalt be saved. For with [the] heart
is believed to righteousness; and with [the] mouth confession made
to salvation” (Rom. 10: 8–10). Rahab had no righteousness of her own
to trust in, and no moral character to commend her to God. As a
Canaanite, she was already judged, but she simply believed the
report she had heard, and rested on the word of promise. It is
exactly the same with regards to the Gospel, for “the Scripture
says, No one believing on him shall be ashamed” (v11).
Having received the assurance, Rahab let the
spies down by a cord from her window (for her house was built upon
the wall). This same cord was to be the sign that marked out Rahab’s
home from the rest of Jericho’s inhabitants as a household that had
passed from death unto life: “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” (Josh. 2: 18). As the colour of kings (see
Matt. 27: 28; Rev. 17: 3, 4) scarlet is an emblem of regality, but
the production of the dye itself is of significance, being due to
the crushing of a particular form of insect larvae. Is there not at
least a hint here then of a kingdom to be established on earth by
virtue of the shed blood of the Saviour? Whatever we make of this
thought, it is clear that the scarlet line was the silent witness of
Rahab’s faith, just as the expectation of Christ and His coming
kingdom should be the Christian’s living testimony. Rahab was alone
in Jericho and yet her faith was strong and certain: soon Jericho’s
mighty walls would lay flat, but that little red line would carry
into blessing all those boldly trusting in it. Have we, therefore, a
similar scarlet cord in our windows? Does our Lord see that we, who
trust in His Word today, are indeed looking for His coming and His
glory? Are we living “soberly, and justly, and piously in the
present course of things, awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of
the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:
12–13)?
Rahab’s dwelling was on the wall, as far from
the centre of the city as possible—just the place for a believer who
is in the world but not of it. Her window faced
out of Jericho, and
the scarlet cord was bound in it—exactly what should be true of the
outlook of every house where Christ is known: its windows should not
look towards the world, but towards the Coming One. At the same
time, Rahab’s door was open to Jericho in order to get people into
the place of safety—a lesson for every saint of God, for their homes
should be places where the message of blessing can be found. Her
house was the only place in the city of destruction where salvation
could be had—just what should characterize the homes of those who
look for Christ’s kingdom. Thus, she spent her time in bringing in
all that were dear to her: none of them were left to perish in the
overthrow (see Josh. 6: 23). By her persuasion she brought them into
a place of safety. Solemn lesson to those Christians, who, while
they profess to know Christ is coming, live otherwise, and have
tragically lost their families to unbelief. We see this solemn
contrast very clearly pictured in the lives of two OT saints.
Abraham lived in the high country, walked in this scene as a
stranger and pilgrim (see Heb. 11: 9) and commanded his household
well (see Gen. 18: 19). Lot settled in the cities of the plain (see
Gen. 13: 12), got on (as men speak) in this world (see Gen. 19: 1),
but lost his entire family (see vs. 14, 26, 30–38). Thus while you
may not be gifted as an evangelist you must at least seek to “gather
to thee in the house thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren,
and all thy father’s household” (Josh. 2: 18)! If any man say he
believes Christ may come today, and is apathetic as to the salvation
of souls—especially as to that of those of his own household and
circle—let him ponder the testimony of Scripture that “as the body
without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead”
(James 2: 26). How sad, for example, to witness Christian parents
who seem more concerned that their children ‘get on’ in this life
than to grow up serving Christ! We should not be surprised at the
tragic end–results, for God is not mocked.
No message of mercy came to Jericho or its
king, and nor is mercy ever offered to Satan’s world–system for “now
is [the] judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world
be cast out: and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw
all to me” (John 12: 31, 32). The world–system is doomed, though
souls may be saved out of it, for it hated the Son of the Father,
and so “if any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him” (1 John 2: 15). A false gospel inverts this truth, exhorting
its adherents to ‘make the world good, improve society, and educate
man up to holiness’ while all the time adamantly refusing the truth
that Christ came “so that he should deliver us
out of the present
evil world, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1: 4,
my emphasis). We see this NT truth illustrated in the type: from the
moment of her conversion, Rahab lived in Jericho as belonging to
another place and people, and when judgment fell upon the city,
Joshua instructed the spies to “Go into the harlot’s house and
bring out thence the
woman, and all that she has, as ye swore unto her. And the young
men, the spies, went in and
brought out
Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her
brethren, and all that she had: all her kindred
did they bring out”
(Josh. 6: 22, 23, my emphasis).
I have little space left, but before we leave
Rahab, we need to consider the blessing to which she was introduced.
In Scripture, the meaning of a name is often important, and Rahab’s
is no exception. Her name means
enlargement or
breadth, and we see this
in abundance when we read of her blessing. Following her
deliverance, Rahab and her family were left “outside the camp of
Israel” (Josh. 6: 23). One can imagine the perplexity with which
some in Israel would view this representative of a people devoted to
destruction. But “outside the camp”
will not do for the
“God of all grace” (1 Pet. 5: 10). God cannot have one whom He has
marked out for blessing to be, as it were, only ‘barely saved’. Like
the prodigal of Luke 15, the best robe must be brought forth and the
fatted calf killed. Thus if “Joshua saved alive Rahab the harlot”
(Josh. 6: 25), then that salvation must not be hindered in its flow.
Grace is not merely active, but
abounds towards the
sinner (see Rom. 5: 15), and so Rahab’s stay
outside the camp is
but temporary, and we soon read that “she dwelt
in the midst of
Israel to this day; because she hid the messengers whom Joshua had
sent to spy out Jericho” (Josh. 6: 25). What a place of privilege
for an immoral Canaanite! Grace, however, must display all its
riches (see Eph. 1:
7), and Rahab marries Salmon in the royal line of Israel (see Ruth
4: 21, 22), and then, wonder of wonders, is placed in the very line
of the Messiah Himself (see Matt. 1: 5). May these brief
contemplations cause you and I to bless the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has similarly “delivered us from the
authority of darkness, and translated [us] into the kingdom of the
Son of his love” (Col. 1: 13)!
