Who would have thought that a prostitute would be the key to a city's gate?
The unlikely story of a pagan harlot becoming a protector of two Jewish spies sent to Jericho to find out about the city is unexpected. Israel has wandered in the desert for forty years and Moses has died before entering the Promised Land. God has made Joshua the leader of the people as they cross the Jordan River.
Rahab’s story is told in the book of Joshua, in the Old Testament. The king of Jericho received word that Israelite spies were in the city. Soldiers searched the city for them, but Rahab took them in and hid them on her roof. She told the soldiers that the spies had left the city before the gates were closed for the night.
Even though a pagan, the stories of what the God of Israel had done for his people had reached Rahab and others in Jericho. The people were afraid. Rahab listened and believed in the power of God and accepted his power. She said to the spies as they hid under the stalks of flax, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt . . . the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” Joshua 2: 9 – 11 (NKJV)
Before the spies left her home, they promised Rahab that she and her family would be saved for helping them. She believed them and trusted in the Lord God of Israel. She was told to hang a red cord from her window to mark her home.
The most valuable lesson in Rahab’s story is that she heard the stories of God and believed them. These stories demonstrated the power of the creator. Instead of ignoring them or praying to her old pagan gods, she turned to the Lord God of Israel and put her future in his hands. She surrendered herself and waited for his delivery from the fate of all the other people in Jericho. No one else in the city came to believe in God but Rahab.
How like the people in Jericho people are today. It seems that the masses want to believe whatever they want and ignore the stories in the Bible for their truth and guidance. Rahab completely changed the way she believed and thought and it changed the future. Rahab is one of the five women in the Bible that is listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the first chapter of Matthew. Rahab is an example of what the power of God can do to change people.
