Tuesday 03 September 2013

Background

Rahab's outwitting of two groups of men makes a good story,which like good stories the world includes suspense, sexualinnuendo and triumph for one of life's losers. The first scene(verses 1-7) describes Rahab's misdirection of the representativesof Jericho's king when suspicions have been aroused that the twomen visiting her are Israelite spies. The second scene (verses8-14) concerns her bargaining with the spies whilst they are hiddenon her roof. The (verses 15-21) third scene is a further exchangebetween them and her when she lowers them from her window in thecity's outer wall enabling their escape.

The name 'Rahab' (meaning 'open place') was used as a generalnickname for a prostitute, so may not be this woman's personalname. Verse 1 almost certainly means that the spies' strategyinvolved them becoming her clients; that is Rahab's story to theking's agents which they readily believe. But whereas she says theyhave left, she has actually hidden the spies on the flat roof ofher house under stalks of flax left there to be softened by the dewprior to separation into fibres for weaving.

Rahab's confession of the supremacy of Israel's God (in verse11) is the theological reason for the story's inclusion. Despitethe tradition held by later rabbis that she married Joshua, and thefact that she is one of very few women named (in Matthew 1:5) as anancestor of Jesus, the book of Joshua does not indicate whether shebecame fully a convert to Israel's faith.

The colour of the cord in her house window to keep its occupantssafe when Israel later overruns the city has naturally been seen asrelated both to the blood on the doorposts of the Israelite housesto keep them safe from God's angel of death at the time of thePassover (Exodus 12:21-30) and to the blood of Christ.The fact that the cord was in the house, along with the presence offlax on the roof, suggests that Rahab industriously cared for herfamily; her similarity to the capable wife in Proverbs 31:10-31(especially verses 13, 21) is notable.

To Ponder

• Assuming Rahab was a typical prostitute of her time, livingwithin an economic system which left women without a male protectordestitute even if they had family responsibilities, how would youevaluate morally her practice of prostitution? To what extent isyour answer relevant to our approach to those in the same situationtoday?

• Rahab lies to the king's messengers in order to protect thespies. What criteria, if any, would lead you to believe itacceptable to tell a lie?

• This chapter (in verse 10 and in Rahab's subsequent bargainingfor protection) first raises an issue which will become more acuteas the book of Joshua unfolds, namely the way in which theconquering Israelites utterly destroyed people and property. How doyou reconcile the fact that the people of Israel believed Godwanted them to act in this way with the fact that such behaviourwould constitute war crimes in today's world?