Day 92 – Rahab & the Spies

• Today’s Old Testament passage is a great little read. Tomorrow the story will move forward again, but do what you can to ensure you remember this little incident, for this tale is more than just a interesting subplot. The passage in Matthew confirms that, if nothing else does. We’ve had many interesting stories recently – Balaam and his donkey for example – but this one is one I would like to encourage you to remember well.
• In a shrewd bit of leadership, Joshua 2 opens with his orders that spies be sent into the Promised Land again in preparation for the upcoming invasion. How many were sent in this time? Why is this an interesting number, do you think?
• Rehab was a prostitute, but early texts also refer to her as an innkeeper. Which is right? Well, both probably. James and Hebrews both refer to her as a prostitute, so she clearly was, but it’s important to note that the spies didn’t stay at her house because they wanted sex. There is nothing to indicate that the spies were at her house for any other reason than a safe place to stay.
• Rehab lied to the king as his officers to save the spies. Why would she do this? She would have been killed for treason if the spies had been found at her house. What considerations do you think might have gone through her mind as she decided to hide her unusual visitors?
• Rehab saved the spies and the spies were able to return to Joshua with the information they needed to plan the attack on Jericho. Why would God use a sinner and someone who wasn’t an Israelite to help defeat the Canaanites? The passage in James helps us. It shows that Rahab looked at all the things God has done for the Israelites and trusted in God because of it. She then put that trust into action. If she had said that she trusted God but didn’t want to risk the dangers of hiding the spies, it would have shown that her trust was only skin deep. Instead, she showed a surprising knowledge of how God had rescued the people of Israel, with that knowledge becoming trust, and that trust becoming action.
• Let’s make that more personal. If you say you trust God, how much are you actually willing to put that into practice? How has knowing and loving Jesus influenced your decision making in anything this last week?
• What do you think of Rahab’s courage when compared to the lack of courage of the previous generation of Israelites who died in the desert?
• How did the spies’ report of the land differ from those of the spies forty years ago?

Take another look at the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. Look – there’s Rahab’s name! It’s great to see it. It confirms that not only did she get rescued, just as the spies promised, but she became the mother of Boaz, who would later become Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer. If you don’t know much about Ruth, don’t worry. We’ll find out more about her later in our reading plan, but I’ll let you into a little secret ahead of time. This all means that Rehab, this poor foreign prostitute, is actually the great-great-grandmother of none other than King David – and, therefore, a very… very… very great grandmother of Jesus! It’s amazing how God works, huh?

Be sure you understand the significance of what you’ve read today. Rahab wasn’t an Israelite. She wasn’t a child of any promise. She was a girl with a messed up sex life from an evil nation. But remember that Jesus welcomed (indeed, he even called) repentant sinners – including prostitutes. In this story we see her being brought into God’s family. In doing so, she shows us a great example of the greater picture of the gospel: that outsiders, sinners and the sick can be not only be saved, but that God can even use them for His redemption plan. This moment is one of the earliest pointers to one of the most wonderful truths of the gospel – that Gentiles can be saved by faith. That’s you and me. The promises God made to Abraham, which are currently being worked out in the historical story of the Israelite nation, will eventually be true for everyone who believes.