And before they had lain down, she went up to them upon the roof;
The pursuers have gone and the gates are shut. Before the two hidden men can sleep, the woman who hid them climbs to the roof to talk. What she says there turns a spying mission into the rescue of a whole household — and it raises a question. Why was the only believing heart in Jericho found in the least likely house in the city?
From that roof, the city below looked prosperous and safe.
Standing with Rahab upon the flat roof of her house (v. 8) and looking around, we learn a lesson for our own times. Notice the growth of the city, its recent improvements, its great high walls and its bronze gates. Look at the face of nature. The mountains stand in their places as they always have. As before, the valleys are golden with ripening grain and the hillsides purple with fruitful vines, for it is harvest time. Prosperity and the hope of increasing greatness are everywhere. The expectation of the future fills the soul. How little does the world dream that the sickle about to reap the harvest is one of judgment!
Of every door in Jericho, the two men ended up behind this one. That was not chance.
Everything about their mission can be called hidden work. In the same way, a secret work of God is going on today, while the course of the world is plain for all to see… God directed the two spies (Joshua 2:1) to the very house in the city where there was a prepared heart. Those who act by faith do not waste time. God leads them to the right places and people. Rahab's house would seem the most unlikely place to find the fear of the Lord. But God never makes mistakes, and the servants whose ways He directs do not go astray.
Their mission was to survey a city. What they brought into it was mercy.
They were sent to view the city as spies. But really they were messengers of grace to a woman who was a sinner. She trusts the word they bring — good news — as she had earlier bowed to the coming judgment. Her soul was prepared to receive the message of mercy. None accept grace except those who bow to God's sentence against themselves. God's grace is only truly good news to the soul that admits the rightness of judgment.
She did not wait until morning to speak.
The men of the city went out to chase the spies, and the gates were shut. Then Rahab came to the spies before they slept. She spoke to them in such a way that there was no doubt God had awakened her to some reality of faith in Him (vv. 7–8). She told them, "I know that the LORD has given you the land."
Everyone in Jericho had heard the same news. One person drew a different conclusion.
What use were Jericho's high walls, if the hearts of its defenders melted within them? But fear is not faith. All had heard what the Lord had done for Israel. All were afraid because of Israel. But not all knew that the Lord had given them the land. Rahab, however, did. She was surrounded by idolatry and all its filthy rites, yet that woman had learned, and knew, that Israel's God was the true God. She had no doubt of it… She had taken their side, she had taken God's side, against her people and her country, and that at the risk of her life.
The men who promised her safety were hiding for their own lives.
And what strength and weakness meet here! The men who were lying under stalks of flax to hide from their pursuers assure safety to all who will take it from them. The Son of Man, the despised One of Galilee, Jesus, the rejected, seals the forgiveness of a sinner. What glimpses of Christ we get through the chinks and openings of the Book of God from its very beginning!
Her assurance did not stop with herself.
Faith is at rest towards God and active towards people. The testimony of the spies filled Rahab with assurance about her own salvation, and with energy for the lives of her whole family. She believed judgment would soon fall on her city. So her cry was, "Save alive my father, and my mother, and my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death."
- Hidden work. From the roof, Jericho looked prosperous and permanent. God was working unseen in one house, while judgment stood at the door.
- Prepared heart. God led the spies to the one house where He had been working — the last address anyone would have guessed.
- Bowed first. Rahab took God's sentence against her city as true, and only a soul that owns that sentence hears grace as good news.
- Knew, not just feared. The whole city was afraid; she alone said "I know" — fear is not faith.
- Shelter shared. Sure of her own rescue, she at once pleaded for her father, mother, brothers and sisters.
and said to the men, I know that Jehovah has given you the land, and that the dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
Rahab says this on a rooftop in Jericho, to two enemy spies she has just hidden. The war has not begun, yet she already knows how it ends — so how did she reach a certainty that Jericho's king and soldiers never reached?
The whole city felt the same fear. What made her different was not better information but faith. One writer traces even her dread back to God's own work in her.
She lets us know a little about the state of feeling in Jericho. Her reasoning was sound, according to faith. It was no mere sentiment, nor a sudden feeling either. There were many who shared her fears; but who shared the faith of Rahab? The warriors of the city were not without the same apprehensions. But in her case, as often in ours, God's Spirit worked where at first there was simply dread. God followed this up, replacing it with living faith in Himself and in His love for His people.
Her neighbours looked at the same events and saw only an advancing army.
Reading Joshua 2 we might have supposed that she was a woman of poor morals and no principle, who was anxious to escape her doom. But the fact was that her eyes had been opened to see God. The Canaanites merely saw Israel. "The fear of you has fallen upon us," she said, "all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you." Her attitude, however, was this: "I know that the LORD has given you the land." This was faith, and her actions showed that she dared to side with the God of Israel.
Nothing she could see supported her claim.
How did she know this? Not a city was taken in Canaan, not an inch of its territory was annexed, not even a blow had yet been struck. The Jordan ran as a barrier against Israel on the other side, and at that time it was overflowing all its banks. How did Rahab know what neither the king nor the people of Jericho knew? It was by faith. "For we have heard" — and faith comes by hearing.
The whole city melted with fear. In Rahab that same fear turned her toward God.
Like her people, she is filled with fear. But they had lost all courage, while for her this very fear is the beginning of wisdom. It is the fear of the Lord, a fear which makes her look to God. At once she gains the certainty ("I know," v. 9) that this God is a God of grace for His people. Faith is not mere human imagination which likes to deceive itself and sees things in whatever light it pleases. It is not the human mind building conclusions on possibilities or probabilities. She says, "I know," because she had heard what the Lord has done.
Jericho held the walls, the chariots and the numbers. One writer points out what that advantage was worth.
Though the people of the land were by far the strongest, and Rahab knew that, their strength had left them despite their chariots of iron. Rahab says, "I know that the LORD has given you the land"… There was genuine faith with her.
Jericho's guilt had been building for a long time, and the whole city had heard the same reports. One writer warns that people can silence such alarm.
Years before, the Lord had sent an arrow of conviction into the conscience of many a Canaanite. For centuries they had been going on wickedly, filling up their sin, and in her day God's patience had reached its limit. … The Spirit of the Lord was striving with people, and clearly with her. But sadly, it is possible to stifle convictions. Satan deceives. The heart deceives. Appearances deceive. To the eye, Jericho could not be taken. … And Satan has a deadly power. Even when he cannot drive fear away completely, he can give such an outward look of safety that people say "peace and safety" despite their secret misgivings.
The rest of the city had the same evidence.
By her faith, Rahab condemns the Canaanite world — for all the inhabitants of that land had felt the report of what God had done by Israel, as well as herself; but she alone had acted on it.
- Heard — Her certainty rested on a report she had believed, not on anything she could see. Faith comes by hearing.
- Feared — The whole city melted; in her alone the fear became the fear of the Lord, and so the beginning of wisdom.
- Knew — "I know" is not imagination or calculating odds; it is confidence in what God has already done.
- Acted — Everyone in Jericho had the same report. She alone acted on it, and that condemned the rest.
- Set apart — The Canaanites saw only Israel. God opened her eyes to see Him, and she alone dared to side with Him.
For we have heard that Jehovah dried up the waters of the Red sea before you when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
Rahab is speaking to two spies she has hidden, and her proof is not what she saw but what she heard. The whole city heard the same news, so why did it produce faith in one woman and panic in everyone else?
Rahab's confidence rested on nothing she could see.
Not a city in Canaan had been taken, not an inch of its territory annexed, not even a blow yet struck. The Jordan ran as a barrier against Israel on the other side, and at that time it was overflowing all its banks. How did Rahab know what neither king nor people of Jericho knew? It was by faith. "For we have heard" — and faith comes by hearing.
Her words name who dried the sea.
She traced their crossing to God alone and to no lesser cause. Nor did the men of Jericho share the unbelief of moderns who pretend that Moses knew and used a ford in passing the Red Sea. She understood the truth because she had faith.
Rahab and her neighbours heard the same report, and it frightened them all.
The word of God comes to her: "We have heard," she said to the spies. It was a word which assured grace and deliverance to some, and judgment to others. Like her people she is filled with fear. But they had lost all courage, while for her this very fear is the beginning of wisdom. It is the fear of the Lord, a fear which makes her look to God. At once she gains the certainty ("I know," v. 9) that this God is a God of grace for His people… Faith is not mere human imagination which likes to deceive itself… she says simply, "I know," because she had heard what the Lord has done.
Forty years is long enough for a story to lose its edge.
The business of the city, its commerce and its luxury, the eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, birth and death, go on as in earlier generations. To the scoffers in the city the story of judgment has grown old. Forty long years ago they, or their fathers, heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea. Now that same people stands at their gates claiming their land. But the story is old, and there is nothing now for them to fear!
The Canaanites were not ignorant, and God had not been hasty.
God is indeed "slow to anger." The evil of the Canaanite nations was great in Abraham's day, but even so He held back their judgment 400 years: "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (Gen. 15:16). From Rahab's words to the spies we learn that the guilty nations were aware that God's executioners were on their way. They had heard of God's heavy hand upon Egypt, and of the destruction of Sihon and Og. Yet there was no repentance on their part.
Rahab's report also exposed something about God's own people. An earlier set of spies had brought back the opposite verdict about this land.
Forty years earlier the faint-hearted spies had brought discouragement into the camp of Israel. They had judged by what their own eyes saw, and unbelief makes hearts melt. They did not know the real state of the people of the land. Rahab's words now declare this secret, hidden from Israel for forty years because of their grumbling and unbelief… Two servants of the Lord can look at the same battlefield with very different eyes. One sees the outside of the world's walls, and the brazen faces of its unbelieving giants. The other sees into the hearts of men, which, for all their talk, tremble at the thought of death and of the coming judgment.
- All heard. The Red Sea and the fall of Sihon and Og were public news in Canaan. Rahab only repeats what the whole city knew.
- One believed. The same report melted every heart, but only in her did faith come by hearing.
- She named God. She traced the parted sea to the Lord Himself, not to any natural cause — the mark of faith rather than mere fear.
- The rest hardened. God held back judgment for centuries, yet they heard the news without repenting.
- Israel had feared in vain. The faint-hearted spies judged by their eyes; Rahab's news showed the land had been trembling all along.
We heard [of it], and our heart melted, and there remained no more spirit in any man because of you; for Jehovah your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.
Rahab, a woman of Jericho, tells two hunted Israelite spies that her city's courage has collapsed. Then she adds what no one else in Jericho said: Israel's God rules heaven and earth. The whole city had heard the same news. Why did it crush everyone, and change only Rahab?
News of what God had done to Egypt and to the Amorites had reached all of Canaan. What set Rahab apart was not better information.
The rest of the people had heard just as much as Rahab. But the report did them no good, because those who heard it did not mix it with faith. It reached Rahab's conscience, and she bowed to God in the face of every natural reason and feeling. She was right about the folly, the sin, and the ruin of fighting against this God. He had delivered His people from the power of Egypt and crushed their Amorite enemies beyond recovery.
Rahab shared her neighbours' terror. In her, that terror did not stay terror. It turned into certainty. That certainty rested on a report, not on anything she could see.
Like her people, she is full of fear. But they had lost all courage, while for her this very fear is the beginning of wisdom. It is the fear of the Lord, a fear which makes her look to God. At once she gains the certainty ("I know," v. 9) that this God is a God of grace for His people... Faith is not mere human imagination. Such imagination likes to deceive itself and sees things in whatever light it pleases. Faith is not the human mind building conclusions on possibilities or probabilities. She says simply, "I know," because she had heard what the Lord has done.
Her words are a claim about who God is. God above in heaven and below on earth leaves no room for any rival. She said this in a city full of shrines to other gods.
Further she knew, and she confessed it, that the Lord their God was God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Then He was the One true God. There was, there could be, no other. She lived in the middle of abounding wickedness. Idolatry surrounded her, with all its filthy rites, and with altars and shrines on every high hill and under every green tree. Yet that woman had learnt and knew that Israel's God was the true God, and that He had given them the land. She had no doubt of it. Her language was clear and precise. "I know," she could say.
She called Israel's God "your God" while standing in a city Israel was about to destroy. That was not a private opinion. It moved her from one loyalty to another.
Here is a woman (Rahab) who sides with the destroyers of her city... her conduct was disgraceful among men on earth. Her justification was that earth had revolted from the God of heaven and earth. Her faith recognised this, however dimly, for she says, "The LORD your God, He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath." So she returned to her (and our) true allegiance. That made her a traitor in Jericho, but she sought and found mercy with God.
Rahab's words could have been empty talk. Her works showed they were not.
Her actions are easy to criticise, yet they had this supreme merit. They showed that she had lost faith in the filthy gods of her native land. She had begun to believe in the might and mercy of the God of Israel. Now this was exactly the point, for the faith she professed to the spies was, "I know that the LORD has given you the land... for the LORD your God, He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath" (Joshua 2:9-11). Did she believe this? She did, for her works showed it. She risked her own neck to identify herself with the people who had the LORD as their God.
Rahab belonged to a nation already under sentence. Her escape shows the sentence was never a locked door for anyone willing to turn.
In the literal history it showed that even the doomed Canaanites might have escaped their doom. They could have escaped by such a repentance and turning to God as was found in Rahab. The prophet announced this principle openly later (Jer. 18:7, 8). It was a gospel of fact for all and every nation, before there could be a gospel of words.
- Heard — the same news reached the whole city; only in Rahab did it mix with faith and reach her conscience.
- Feared — her fear became the fear of the Lord, and so became the beginning of wisdom rather than despair.
- Knew — she confessed one God over heaven and earth, with no other beside Him. Her ground was what she had heard, not what she saw.
- Changed sides — that confession moved her allegiance and made her a traitor in Jericho. The risk she took proved it was real.
- Escaped — even a nation under sentence could turn to God and live. That was a gospel of fact before there was a gospel of words.