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.