Part 16 (1/2)
Stan reached for her hand, pulling her toward him. ”Of course we came.” Despite the hammering in his chest, he managed a slight smile. ”Who could ever forget a woman like you?”
The faintest tremor beneath their feet sent the little band scurrying toward the helicopter, heads low, eyes on the ground. He gripped Rae's hand, guiding her across the roof to safety, realizing he had no intention of letting her go, now or ever.
He lifted her into the last pa.s.senger seat as the ground began to s.h.i.+ft, throwing his lengthy frame forward onto the copter's floor. ”Go, go!” he shouted above the ominous rumbling, dragging his legs in as the Ranger lifted off the rooftop with a sudden lurch.
A quick check of his watch confirmed the time: Tuesday, October 17, 5:04 P.M. The accuracy of their prediction offered little comfort. Stan watched in resignation as the first walls began to crumble...
Rising like a Phoenix from the
Ashes of Jericho: Rahab
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from s.h.i.+ttim. ”Go, look over the land,” he said, ”especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prost.i.tute named Rahab and stayed there. Joshua 2:1 Some folks are defined by their occupations, and that's clearly the case with Rahab. Truth is, her job was practically her last name.
Rahab-the-Harlot. Rahab-the-Harlot.
There were two kinds of prost.i.tutes in her day-the religious ones who worked at the Canaanite temple and the run-of-the-mill harlots who worked for cash.
Rahab was the second kind. The Hebrew word was zoonah; the Greek word was p.o.r.ne. But any way you spell it, Rahab was a wh.o.r.e.
Ugly word. Sounds like a curse, and often is.
She may have been ”bad, like the rest, and smart and resolute,”1 but she wasn't called ”Rahab the Brain.” She was the sort of woman everyone talked about but not to, especially not in public. Prost.i.tutes were social outcasts-ostracized moral lepers, tolerated but in no way honored. Even the men who beat a path to her door at night turned their backs on her by the light of day, as did the rest of Jericho.
Older commentaries insist Rahab was more of an ”innkeeper.” Well... Her establishment, situated as it was by the city gates of Jericho, undoubtedly served many a weary traveler. The difference was, for the price of clean sheets, a guest found a woman waiting between them.
Innkeepers usually were women, offering food, lodging, and...amenities. ”Call the front desk if you left anything at home.” By any label, Rahab's vocation was a lowly one, with no husband to provide for her or protect her worldly goods or her worldly self.
She was on her own but not alone in life. Her family-father and mother, sisters and brothers, no mention of children-lived in another part of town. No surprise there. Rahab's house was hardly a home, and besides, having family members around would've cooled the ardor of her clientele.
Two things not discussed in Scripture are worth remembering: First, this was a woman who knew how to handle men. Knew how they thought, how they behaved, and what they needed. Second, according to rabbinical tradition, Rahab was one of the four most beautiful women in the ancient world. Business was undoubtedly brisk.
Even given these truths, one still might ask why our two righteous Israelite spies landed at a harlot's doorstep. Didn't the wisdom of the ages warn against it, as Solomon, Rahab's own descendant, would caution men four centuries later?
Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house. Proverbs 5:8 Problem was, Rahab's house was hard to miss, nestled as it was against the town wall at the gate, her high roof level with the ramparts. Archaeologists say the double walls of Jericho were built twelve to fifteen feet apart-plenty of room to squeeze in a cozy house, supported between two walls by stout timbers.2 Besides, these two guys didn't call ahead for reservations. Spies can't be choosy. The king of Jericho knew they had come and had his men combing the streets for two foreigners. Where better to lie low than in a place with lots of traffic, where questions weren't asked, and strangers came and went at all hours? Perfect.
The king of Jericho was told, ”Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” Joshua 2:2 One commentator suggested that the two men probably partook of Rahab's services while there. Say what? They were on a dangerous spy mission, being chased by the king's seek-and-destroy team, and were obviously honorable, zealous Israelites. Take time for a dishy detour? Humph. Clearly the commentator partook of too many James Bond movies. In real (Hebrew) life the two men simply needed a place to hide and providentially found their way to the door of this woman-Rahab-the-Harlot-whose high roof offered the ideal vantage point for a spy on a.s.signment.
The men arrived, their clothes still damp from the waters of the turbulent Jordan River, which they'd navigated a few miles back. They were not only antic.i.p.ated-rumors had been flying for years about the Exodus from Egypt and the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea-they'd already been spotted.
So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: ”Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.” Joshua 2:3 This wasn't a suggestion; it was a command, with an appeal to her supposedly patriotic soul since spies were enemies of the state. The messengers didn't need to specify which men. Everyone in town would have identified the duo as Israelites by their accent and appearance.
Rahab was faced with a difficult choice, much more challenging than the one Delilah was given when a handsome stranger darkened her door. In Delilah's case the authorities offered her money for information on the stranger. In Rahab's case they not only didn't offer a reward, they implied a threat on her life if she didn't cooperate.
In every life story, including our own, decisions are made in haste that determine the course of eternity. Delilah was ”Bad to the Bone” and chose accordingly. Rahab was only ”Bad for a Season, but Not Forever.” Indeed, the winds of change were blowing across her doorstep at that very moment.
But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. Joshua 2:4 You go, girl! Brave, fearless Rahab risked life and limb to hide two men she'd barely met. And not only hide them-she lied for them.
She said, ”Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from.” Joshua 2:4 Clever woman. She couldn't deny the obvious-the men had already been seen entering her door-but who was to say they signed the guest register? When the oil lamps go out, all men look alike, right?
”At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went.” Joshua 2:5 Quick thinking again. Lots of folks squeezed through the gate before nightfall. Who bothered to notice where they went after that?
”Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” Joshua 2:5 Rahab probably bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing when she dished out the oldest line in the book: ”They went thataway!”
To those who might see her subterfuge as sin, I'll point out that if a gang of thugs appeared at my door, weapons in hand, and demanded the whereabouts of my loved ones, I would lie.
A big, juicy fib. ”They left the country.” Whatever.
Rahab's actions were even more courageous because these men were not family; they were strangers. What possessed her to protect them, to hide them under the four-foot stalks of wet flax she'd spread out to dry in neat rows on her roof?
Obviously, this wise woman sensed an upheaval-spiritual and otherwise-about to sweep through Jericho. She reasoned things through and made the most important decision of her life.
Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, ”I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that...” Joshua 2:8-9 Hold it, honey. The Lord? Would that be Baal or some other, lesser G.o.d? Do you mean the G.o.d, the one true G.o.d, the G.o.d of the Israelites, revealed his holiness to you? You, of all people-a woman, a hooker, unmarried and unworthy, the lovely but unloved Rahab?
My, my, will wonders never cease?
(No, thank the Lord, they won't!) ”...a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.” Joshua 2:9 Finally she spoke the unvarnished truth: ”You scare us silly!” Maybe she was more afraid of these two than all the king's men. But not too afraid to save them or to speak to them plainly. How they must have admired her valor. Rahab the lionhearted!
She went on to explain how the citizens of Jericho had trembled at the news of the parting of the Red Sea and of the Israelites' utter destruction of two neighboring kingdoms ruled by Sihon and Og.
”When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you...” Joshua 2:11 Well, not everyone's courage, Rahab. Not yours.
”...for the LORD your G.o.d is G.o.d in heaven above and on the earth below.” Joshua 2:11 Sister, the angels rejoiced at the sound of those words! Rahab, the harlot, the Canaanite, the wors.h.i.+per of Baal and worse, had come to her senses. ”G.o.d is G.o.d!” She'd seen the power of Jehovah G.o.d at work, accepted the reality of his existence, and confessed with her mouth to these witnesses that the One they called G.o.d was G.o.d, the almighty G.o.d.
One author described it succinctly: ”First she heard the Word, then she believed. This belief led to faith, which then led to works. In the process, she was saved.”3 What a familiar progression to readers of the New Testament! Rahab was thirty-four centuries ahead of many of us as she made her profession of faith beneath a Pa.s.sover moon on a night full of fear and wonder in old Jericho.
So much for Baal, Molech, and Ashtoreth.
This soiled dove found peace and bright hope for the future with one G.o.d, not myriad G.o.ds. She probably saw the duo's arrival at her doorstep as divinely ordained, saving her from certain death, not only physical but also spiritual. Talk about your ”aha!” moment.
Generous Rahab was even more concerned about the lives of others.
”Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.” Joshua 2:12 If we didn't already know so much about this woman, her words might have sounded self-serving or manipulative. ”Give to get” goes the modern business philosophy. But Rahab's selfless actions to this point suggest that she's merely a determined overseer of her family's welfare, and bless her for that. What family wouldn't want a warrior princess like Rahab fighting for its safety?
”Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death.” Joshua 2:12-13 Rahab wanted her family saved too. (Don't we all?) The men were quick to agree, probably out of relief and grat.i.tude and more than a little respect.
”Our lives for your lives!” the men a.s.sured her. ”If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land.” Joshua 2:14 This ”sure sign” that Rahab requested was a binding pledge with the terms carefully stated. True, it was spoken, not written-but so are marriage vows, and they're plenty binding. Note that trust flowed in both directions. Her newfound faith empowered her to trust these complete strangers-and a strange, new G.o.d-to save her life. Their seasoned faith enabled them to trust a harlot wearing her changed heart on her sleeve to save them from death.