Rahab: When God Opens the
Door that no one else Can
…Salmon the father of Boaz
by Rahab…
(Matthew 1:5a)
The second woman Matthew names in the genealogy of Jesus Christ is Rahab, Rahab the harlot of Jericho. Her title alone startles us. A prostitute in the family line of the Messiah? Yet the Holy Spirit deliberately includes her, not to glorify her past but to magnify the grace of God. Rahab stands as a living testimony to sovereign mercy: God opened her heart, worked faith in her, and used her to open the door into the land of promise and toward the coming Messiah himself.
At the Threshold of Promise
Israel had reached the
doorway of the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had
stood here once before. Forty years earlier, under Moses, twelve spies had gone
into the land. Ten returned trembling with fear; two, Joshua and Caleb, returned
burning with faith. The people listened to the ten. They cried for Egypt. They
begged to die in the desert rather than trust the God who had redeemed them.
And so they wandered for
forty years, one year for every day the spies had spent in the land.
Now the forty years are
over. A new generation stands at Shittim, near the Dead Sea. Across the Jordan
rises Jericho, a small but powerful fortress city, the key to entering Canaan.
Jericho must fall if Israel is to enter the land.
Joshua sends two spies
across the Jordan with a simple command: “Go view the land, especially
Jericho.” They slip into the city and enter the house of a prostitute named
Rahab. Her home likely served as an inn, a place where travellers came and went
without attracting attention.
But word spreads quickly
in a fearful city. Someone recognizes them. Someone tells the king. Soldiers
are sent to Rahab’s house.
Rahab has already hidden the spies beneath stalks of drying flax on her roof. When the soldiers arrive, she meets them with a calm face and a bold lie: “Yes, the men were here, but they left before the gate closed. If you hurry, you might catch them.” The soldiers rush out toward the Jordan. The gates slam shut behind them. And Rahab climbs the stairs to the roof.
The Door of a Heart Swung Open
Why did she do it? Why
risk her life for two foreign spies? Why betray her king, her city, her people?
There is only one answer:
God had opened her heart.
Before the spies ever set
foot in her house, the Lord had
already been at work within her. She had heard the stories, stories of a God
who dried up the Red Sea, drowned Pharaoh’s armies, and crushed Sihon and Og.
Everyone in Jericho had heard these stories. Everyone trembled with fear, but
one woman believed.
On the roof, Rahab speaks
words that echo across Scripture: “I know that the Lord has given you this land…. We have heard how the Lord dried up the Red Sea.… When we
heard of it, our hearts melted…. For the Lord
your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”
While Jericho bolts its
gates, Rahab opens her heart. While the city clings to its idols, Rahab
abandons hers. While her people prepare to resist the living God, Rahab chooses
to join him.
She makes the choice every
human being must make: Will I serve the Lord,
or will I serve the world? Will I say, “Thy will be done,” or “My will be
done”?
Rahab chooses the Lord.
A Faith that Acts, and a Door that Opens
Rahab’s faith does not
remain hidden. Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith, includes her name alongside
Abraham and Moses (11:31). James praises her as one whose works proved her
faith genuine (2:25). Rahab’s faith moved her hands as well as her heart. She
hid the spies and misled the soldiers. She lowered the spies from her window by
a scarlet cord and sent them into the hills for three days until the search
parties returned. She gave them counsel and gave them courage.
And God used her.
Through Rahab’s active
faith, the spies survived. Through her testimony, they returned to Joshua with
a message that electrified the camp: “The Lord
has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in
fear because of us.”
Forty years earlier, ten
spies had returned with fear and unbelief. Now two spies returned with
confidence and faith, and the difference was Rahab.
The words “the land”
appear seven times in Joshua 2. The land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. The land flowing with milk and honey. The land where Israel would be
free from oppression, free to worship, free to rest.
And God used Rahab to open
the door.
Joshua led the people
across the Jordan. Rahab opened the way into Jericho. Together, the great
leader of Israel and the former prostitute of Canaan served the unfolding plan
of God.
But Scripture tells us
there is a greater rest still to come. A better Joshua, Jesus, the son of
David, the son of Rahab, leads his people into a better land. A land where
sorrow and death are no more. A land where the people of God will serve him with
joy forever.
Through the faithful obedience of Jesus Christ, the son of Rahab, God opens the door to that eternal land. He opens it wide. And no one can shut it.
The Scarlet Cord and the Door Toward Christ
Before the spies left her
house, Rahab asked that she and her family might be saved. The spies swore an
oath that they would be, but there was something Rahab must do: she must hang a
scarlet cord from her window.
Rahab’s house was built
into the city wall. The same window through which she lowered the spies would
become the sign of her salvation. “Tie this cord in the window,” they said.
“Gather your family inside. When the city falls, you will all be safe.”
The scarlet cord carried
layers of meaning. Scarlet was the colour of her past, the colour of sin,
shame, and harlotry. Yet in Hebrew, the word for rope is the same as the word
for hope.
Rahab’s rope became her
hope.
Her scarlet cord, once a
symbol of shame, became the sign of salvation. It pointed forward to the
scarlet blood of Christ, by which sinners are redeemed.
When the walls of Jericho
fell, God remembered Rahab. The entire city lay under his curse, but the house
marked by the scarlet cord stood firm. Rahab and her family were brought out
alive. After a period of purification outside the camp, she was welcomed into
the community of faith.
And God continued to use
her.
She married Salmon of the
tribe of Judah. She became a mother in Israel. She became a mother of the
Messiah. From Rahab came Boaz. From Boaz came Jesse. From Jesse came David.
From David came the Christ.
Jesus was born, a son of
Rahab the harlot. He was born to bear the scarlet sins of his people. And like
his mother Rahab, he too went outside the camp to suffer, to redeem, to gather
a people for himself.
Through his death and
resurrection, Jesus created a new community, a community of faith, a people who
believe in him, gather with him, and obey him. He has gathered us into that
community. It is called “the Church of Jesus Christ.”
God is the God who opens doors. He opens the door of the heart. He opens the door of faith. He opens the door to the eternal land of rest. And even now, he opens the door of his Church to all who come to him in faith.
George van Popta
