And the city shall be accursed, it and all that is in it, to Jehovah; only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But in any wise keep from the accursed thing, lest ye make [yourselves] accursed in taking of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
Israel's greatest victory came with a warning. The danger was not the enemy outside the walls but the appetite inside the camp. Joshua warns that taking what God has doomed will not ruin one man only. It will drag the whole nation into the doom of the city they just destroyed.
Older translations read "accursed" here. The word means devoted — handed over to God alone, out of ordinary human use. Jericho and everything in it was His, and Israel could spend none of it.
Joshua told them that Jericho and everything in it was accursed. It was all devoted to God alone. Israel had to destroy the city completely and burn away its defilement. The silver and the gold survived the fire, and they had to go into the treasury of the LORD, because He had said, "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine." He claimed the metals that fire cannot destroy as His own share (Joshua 6:17-19).
That claim was total. Jericho gave Israel no profit at all.
Not a shred nor a shekel from Jericho did God allow Israel for their personal glory or wealth. Those called to carry out God's ban on the Canaanites were to take nothing for themselves.
The ban was about fellowship, not money. To pocket part of Jericho would leave God's people owing something to the world God had condemned.
Another principle is this: there must be no fellowship at all with what makes up the power of God's enemy — the world and its strength. All is accursed. It is the same for us in this world. If the world of Sodom had made Abraham rich, he would have depended on that world. He would have owed it something. He would not have been free from it to belong entirely to God. "But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction" [the older translation the writer used reads on: "lest you make yourselves accursed"]. God may use these things by consecrating them to Himself, if He will. But if man, if the Christian, meddles with them, the Lord must judge him... But holiness, complete separation from the world because power belongs to God — that is the condition of strength.
The danger was not the enemy's strength. It was appetite.
Here is also a solemn word of warning against lust and covetousness, for traps surround us on every side. One of those who had professed faithfulness to God saw a Babylonian garment and a wedge of gold, and coveted them. So he took them and hid them in his house; but God saw him, and His judgment fell heavily as a result. We all know Satan's common baits for professing Christians today: love of dress — "the Babylonian garment" — and the possession of wealth — "the wedge of gold."
Joshua does not say the thief will trouble himself. He says the trouble will fall on the whole camp. That is what happened: one man stole, and the whole nation stood guilty.
The whole assembly shared in the evil. How was this? God's presence made the whole assembly one. It bound them together so closely that the sin of one man touched them all. They were one assembly, so no one could stand apart on his own. The sin of each was the sin of all, because God was among them, and He could not tolerate evil that went unjudged.
The reversal is complete. The people who had just carried out judgment on a doomed city would carry the doom themselves.
Israel later met with disaster. This verse had already named the reason.
From Joshua 6:18 he ought to have known where the cause of this disaster lay... Instead of the victories of Israel, the purification of Israel must take place... If we do not judge ourselves, the Lord will, so that we may not be condemned with the world... The camp of Israel will not become a Canaanite nation, though for a moment it may become like Jericho... But it is only delay. Discipline does not cancel grace; it only keeps holiness. The valley of Achor is a door of hope (Hosea 2:15).
- Devoted. What is devoted belongs to God alone. Jericho's metals went to His treasury, and Israel kept not a shred or a shekel.
- Debt. A share of the spoil would leave God's people owing something to the world He had condemned. Abraham refused Sodom's wealth for the same reason.
- Desire. The real trap was covetousness: a fine garment and a wedge of gold, love of dress and love of wealth.
- Defilement. God warns the whole nation, not just the thief. His presence bound the camp into one, so one man's hidden theft made them all share the curse.
- Discipline. Joshua had already been told where defeat would come from. Once Israel judged the evil, they moved on again. Discipline delays; it does not cancel grace.
And all the silver, and gold, and vessels of copper and iron, shall be holy to Jehovah; they shall come into the treasury of Jehovah.
Jericho falls without a siege, and before a single Israelite steps inside, God has already decided who owns the plunder. Everything that burns must burn, while the metals fire cannot destroy belong to Him and go into His treasury — so why did the winners get nothing from their first battle in the land?
Joshua told the people what God required, and what He kept back for Himself.
Joshua told them that Jericho and everything in it lay under God's curse. It all belonged to God alone. The city had to be destroyed completely, and its defilement burned away by fire. Whatever survived the fire — the silver and the gold — had to go into the treasury of Jehovah, because He had said that the silver and the gold are His. He claimed the metals that fire cannot destroy as His own share.
The treasury was a real place in the temple, and it turns up again in the Gospels.
One part of the temple was called "the treasury." It held the things set apart for Jehovah, such as the gold, silver, and vessels of bronze and iron captured from Jericho (Joshua 6:19). The people also handed in their freewill offerings at "the treasury" (Mark 12:41, 43). On one occasion the Lord spoke to the people "in the treasury, as He taught in the temple." He was no doubt in the outer part, where He could watch the people bringing in their gifts (Luke 21:1; John 8:20).
The walls fell without a blow struck. The rule about the plunder matched the way God gave the victory, and it held for this city, not for every battle after it.
At the taking of Jericho, Jehovah had already shown that His might alone gave the victory. Or rather, His might alone made everything fall before Israel, for the prince of this world had no power against Him. He had also shown that the gold and silver were His. So the people were not to seek the treasures of the conquered world, or enrich themselves with its spoils. As a rule, though, once Israel had wiped out their enemies, they took possession of everything, just as they took the promised land.
Everything else in Jericho went up in flames. The verse names four materials that come through fire, and one writer reads them as pictures of things too valuable to burn with the city.
These were things that could stand up to the fire of God's judgment. Fire would only purify them, not destroy them. They all picture spiritual things that, used rightly, bring glory to God and blessing to the whole congregation. Gold, for instance, speaks of the glory of God. But people who only profess religion, people Satan has deceived, badly abuse that glory. We see it in Revelation 18:12, where the false church trades in gold — that is, it trades in what is only rightly used for God's glory. The same is true of silver, which speaks of redemption, and men's religions misuse that too. Bronze is named in the same verse as well. Bronze pictures the holiness of God, yet in their profitable religion it becomes merchandise too. How important to have these things rescued from unholy hands and given back to God!
The same distinction is drawn more briefly elsewhere, and applied to the believer's own dealings with the world.
The city and everything in it lay under the curse, and had to be completely destroyed, apart from the silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, which were set apart for the Lord. This pictures the power of Satan in the world that stops the Christian's progress. The Christian must count it all as under the curse, though God may use such things by setting them apart for Himself.
This command becomes the measuring rod for the disaster in the next chapter.
God allowed Israel not a shred or a shekel from Jericho for their own glory or wealth. The men He called to carry out His sentence on the Canaanites were to take nothing for themselves. Yet Achan laid hands on both the garment and the gold — on what was cursed and doomed to the fire, and on what was set apart for Jehovah's treasury. Achan was a prince in Israel, and sin and sorrow often come in through the leaders rather than through the ordinary soldiers of God's army.
- His power — the walls fell by God's might alone, so the victory was never Israel's to cash in.
- His claim — He kept the metals that survive fire as His own share, because the silver and the gold are His.
- His treasury — they went to the temple treasury, the same place that later took in the people's freewill gifts.
- His use — gold, silver, bronze and iron picture what fire only purifies; men abuse them, but God can take them back for Himself.
- His line — God allowed not a shred or a shekel for personal gain. Achan grabbed the doomed garment and the devoted gold, and sin and sorrow came in through a leader.
And the people shouted, and they blew with the trumpets. And it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpets, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat; and the people went up into the city, each one straight before him, and they took the city.
On the seventh day, one command and one shout bring down a walled city — no battering ram, no ladder. Commentators ask two questions here: why did God choose this method, and who brought the wall down?
Joshua told the people to shout while the wall was still standing. One writer notes what lay behind that assurance.
At last comes the crisis when faith had its answer… Can anything be more remarkable than the way Joshua calls the people to a settled and thorough assurance of what is going to happen to Jericho before it takes place? The means used were plainly not enough on human grounds. There is communion with the mind of God. It is as fully laid out before Joshua and all the people as if the city already lay in ruins.
Six days of marching, then seven circuits on the last day — the plan invites objection. One writer answers that faith obeys first and understands later.
But, someone may say, why not make the path simpler? Why all these complications? Why go round the city every day, and seven times on the seventh day? Why this procession with the ark and trumpets? Faith does not ask why. It does not reason about the means God chooses to use. It accepts them, enters into them, and gains the victory instead of being beaten by the enemy… Faith will tell you the reason for the seven days, the ark, the procession, the trumpets, and the shouts of joy. But it will only tell you after you submit to them. Otherwise it would be intelligence and not faith.
The watching city saw only a pointless parade.
What could the blowing of rams' horns do towards throwing down the walls of Jericho? What could be more meaningless and ridiculous in the eyes of man?… The people of Jericho, apart from one singled out by grace, may have watched in amazement on the first day and trembled at what would follow. By the sixth day they had learned to mock the procession that seemed so foolish to them. The seventh day brought its dreadful reality — sudden and unrecoverable destruction… Faith was patient through the six days and triumphed on the seventh. God crowns it all by displaying His power as greater than man and independent of him.
The shout and the collapse come in the same sentence, so it is easy to treat one as the cause of the other.
Only then were the people of Israel to raise their voices, and at Joshua's command they gave a shout. The shout did not bring the wall down. But God, in grace, allowed His people to share the triumph over the power of the enemy. His almighty power made the wall fall flat. That power also made His people strong in the Lord, so they overcame their enemies.
Another writer pictures the alternative.
Suppose Israel had said: Very well, let the power be God's, but let us work together to find the means to overthrow the walls of Jericho — what would have happened on the seventh day? Not a single stone of the wall would have fallen!
No one crowded through a gate. Each man went up where he stood, and one writer draws a warning from that.
The shout of victory will soon sound! The Lord will give the word, and then the defences of evil will fall before Him… In view of that day, let every man go up straight before Him. Among the soldiers of Jesus Christ there is too much following of leaders, and too little simple obedience to the Lord. Men crowd on one another's steps, and the nobility of individuality is missing. Few dare to face the sneer of being odd by doing their own duty in obedience to the word of the Lord.
The captured city was then destroyed. One writer explains why.
The battle was now the Lord's, so it did not matter what the weapons of war were… And so the shout of the soldiers and the blast of a ram's horn trumpet are enough. The walls of Jericho fall, and Israel takes that city as the firstfruits of the land. Faith did it and not force (Heb. 11:30) — faith which brings God in… But the world must be judged… Jericho is given over to the sword. It stood out as the sample of what was to be judged. Everyone in it, or belonging to it, was to be cut off — except the household of faith sheltered under the scarlet line.
- Given, then taken. Joshua shouts because the city is already given; the wall falls after the word, not before it.
- Given, so obey. Faith accepts the strange method first and understands the reason later.
- Given, so wait. Six days of patience precede one moment of power; the mockery of onlookers is part of the test.
- Given, not earned. The shout did not topple the wall. God did, and in grace let His people share the triumph. Human plans added to His would have left every stone standing.
- Given, and answered one by one. Each man went up straight in front of him: obedience to the Lord, not to the crowd. Inside the doomed city, God spared one household under the scarlet line.
And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city; both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.
The fall of Jericho ends with a verdict that troubles many readers: every living thing in the city put to the sword. Commentators do not read this as a war story gone too far. They read it as God's own sentence, carried out by human hands.
The order makes sense only when you see what these cities had become, and how long God waited before acting.
Many people have found a problem in these extreme measures of Joshua, taken as the Lord's will. The total destruction carried out in the land of Canaan shocks them. But they forget, or do not know, that these Canaanites were the boldest enemies against God, the most openly depraved and shameless people on earth... They could have fled elsewhere if they would not repent of their sins. God had said long before that He meant to bring His people to Canaan, so it was rebellious unbelief on their part not to expect it. While God waited for His people to go through the discipline they needed in slavery and sorrow, Satan was working the Amorites up to terrible extremes of evil. Their cup of sin was full at the very time God's dealings with Israel were ripe enough to bring His people in.
Others add that this long delay was itself an act of grace, and that the wickedness was bound up with worship.
Already in Genesis 15:16 God had said to Abraham: "For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." The Amorites were one of the main nations of Canaan.
Some defend the killing by saying it was just how ancient armies behaved. Commentators reject that. The order came from above the army.
Unbelievers have made the most of it, attacking these records and blaspheming the righteous and holy God. Others have tried to excuse the Israelites by saying that treating conquered nations this way was simply the custom 1,500 years before Christ. But it was God Himself who commanded their extermination. Joshua and Israel had no choice at all in the matter. They acted in obedience to God's will. God's time to carry out His righteous judgments had come, and He used Israel as His instrument.
Writers do not hide that children died. They ask what those children would have grown into.
This may seem appalling to us today. But we must remember that the people of the land, Jericho included, had given themselves up completely to demon worship. At least the little children were not yet responsible for this wickedness. They would go to heaven, which is far better than staying on earth to follow the ways of their parents.
The word behind the destruction is a legal one: the city was handed over to God entirely, so that no Israelite could profit from its fall. Even the city's name carried an irony.
Jericho is a striking type of the world under the curse, as we see here, devoted by God to utter destruction (as we know the world is), seated, however fair its surroundings, by the "river of death," Jordan, very near to the Salt Sea, the sea of judgment, into which it flows. The word Jericho means "Sweet Savour," in striking contrast with what it was to God. The whole land really stank before God. And this city of Jericho was branded with His special curse.
The verse lists the whole population, yet one household survived. Rahab, a prostitute of the doomed city, had asked for mercy before the walls fell.
And so it was done: grace exempted before judgment... And the word of mercy was not forgotten in the hour of victory: "Joshua saved Rahab the prostitute alive, and her father's household, and all that she had. She has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho."
One writer takes this further, from Jericho to the world today.
No message of mercy came to Jericho, and it is written, "Now is the judgment of this world" (John 12:31)... All who believe are delivered from the doom of this present evil world, saved from its end, and rescued from the wrath to come. A false gospel turns this truth upside down. It cries, "Make the world good, improve society, educate people up to holiness." It refuses to admit that sinners need salvation out of this world, just as Rahab needed saving out of Jericho.
Jericho was never to be rebuilt. One writer makes that ruin a picture for the believer.
As Jericho falls and lies in ruins as soon as Israel is in the land, so the world lies in ruins for the believer who grasps his position in Christ. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world... The world must stay in ruins for the believer who walks in the Spirit, just as Jericho was not to be rebuilt.
- Devoted, after patience — God waited more than four hundred years while these nations filled up their guilt. The sword fell only when the cup was full.
- Devoted, by God's word — Israel did not invent this. They carried out God's own sentence, as His instrument of righteous judgment.
- Devoted, even the young — commentators do not soften the children's deaths. They hold that heaven was better for them than growing up in their parents' worship.
- Devoted — except one house — Rahab asked for mercy before judgment came, and she received it. Grace exempted before judgment.
- Devoted, and left in ruins — Jericho was never to be rebuilt. The believer sees the world the same way: already judged, and not to be built up again.
And Joshua said to the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house and bring out thence the woman, and all that she has, as ye swore unto her.
Jericho's walls have fallen and Israel is destroying the city. In the middle of that scene, Joshua stops to keep a promise made to a woman inside those walls. His order raises one question. Can a single household survive a judgment that spares nothing else?
The two men had first entered Jericho to gather military information. Joshua now sends them back on a different errand.
Was it to do what they could to improve Jericho? Was it to try to lift up the masses of people in this strongly fortified, well-built city? Was it to tell them that the world was getting better? Certainly not, because none of these things would be true. It was to save sinners out of this already doomed city. God's testimony had gone out against it. The city, the king, and all its fighting men were given to Joshua for destruction. But there were some to rescue out of it — some who would not come into judgment. The faithful servants of God were intent on saving them.
Joshua's reason for the rescue is not Rahab's worth but a promise. The spies had given her one sign: a scarlet cord in her window. Now the city was falling, and that word faced its test.
Attackers rarely take care when they capture a city. Yet she proved, and all with her proved, that there was salvation for them, because the scarlet line was in the window. No one in that house had a hair of their head hurt, and Rahab did not lose one thing she had owned. They "brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her." The word of the spies was true. The token was all that was needed. What a thing it is to be safe from judgment in the very place where judgment is falling.
Rahab's house stood on the city wall — the same wall that had just collapsed.
How wonderfully the promise was kept to Rahab and her house! No doubt Jericho laughed at that scarlet line. She alone and her house escaped the dreadful judgment. The whole wall fell; but one small section stayed standing — the section her house stood on.
The rescue is not of one woman. Her father, mother, brothers and all her relatives walk out of the ruins with her.
The men gave her this secret, and it changed Rahab's life. Whatever she had been busy with before, two things now pressed her to use the little time left well: the terror of the coming judgment, and the assurance of salvation for everyone under that God-given token. The Lord worked with her, and her father, her mother, her brothers, and all her relatives came out safe. How simple the way of their salvation — faith in God about this secret, "the scarlet line!"
The woman Joshua names is a Canaanite and is described by her trade. Writers press how far down grace had to reach to find her.
In Rahab we find a third group of people. They are Gentiles who by faith share the enjoyment of the promises along with God's ancient people. Rahab was a Gentile. More than that, she was a degraded person even among the Gentiles themselves.
One writer points to what she had already done before Joshua gave the order.
A prostitute was among them; but she was a woman of faith. She had shown it by befriending the people of God, and she openly confessed her faith by putting the scarlet line in the window.
Coming out of Jericho was only half of her story.
So she was brought out, and so she was brought in. Saved out of the doom of Jericho, and brought into all the royal privileges of Israel. Grace lifted the prostitute of Jericho into the place of the most honoured mother in Israel. She became a mother in that royal line from which David, and David's greater son, came. She became the wife of Salmon, the father of Boaz. God dealt kindly and truly with her, and with everyone in that wicked city who believed the word of the Lord.
- Sworn. Joshua's reason for the rescue is a promise given, not a merit found: "as you swore to her" is the whole ground of her safety.
- Marked. She confessed her faith by hanging out the scarlet cord. Jericho laughed at it, but that token was all that was needed.
- Standing. The wall fell flat. The one section holding her house stayed up. She was safe in the very place where judgment fell.
- Widened. The promise reached her father, mother, brothers and all her relatives. She gathered them in while there was still time.
- Brought in. She was carried out of a doomed city and set inside Israel's privileges — and into the family line of David.
And the young men, the spies, went in and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had all her kindred did they bring out, and they left them outside the camp of Israel.
Jericho has fallen and its destruction has begun, yet two young men walk back into the city to rescue rather than destroy. They are keeping a promise made to a woman with no claim on Israel — a promise that reaches her whole family, and still leaves them outside the camp.
Rahab's house had one mark on it — a scarlet line in the window. Here is what that mark was worth on the day the city fell.
At such a moment as the capture of a city, the attackers are not usually careful in what they do. Yet she proved, and all with her, that there was salvation for them, because the scarlet line was in the window. No one in that house had a hair of their head hurt, and Rahab did not lose one thing she had owned. "They brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her" (6:23). The word of the spies was true. The token was all that was needed. What a thing it is to be safe from judgment in the very place where it is being carried out.
Rahab had used the word "household" when she asked for her family. The spies could have argued over how many people that word covered.
No. The spies went to bring Rahab out of the doomed city, out of that house sheltered by the scarlet line in the window. There they found "her father, and her mother, and her brothers, and all that she had; and they brought out all her families, and left them outside the camp of Israel" (Joshua 6:23, margin). They did not say, "Rahab, you have taken this word 'household' to mean too many." On the contrary, the Lord delights to record the breadth of Rahab's faith, and He honours it to the full.
That older translation's margin reads "all her families"; the ESV says "all her relatives." What makes the case unusual is her position in the family. She is a daughter, not a father — the parents she saves are her own.
There is this difference between Rahab and the other cases we have considered: she is not the head of a family. That is exactly why her case displays the family principle even more remarkably — the unity of the household before God.
The closing phrase is easy to read as a slight. It simply describes where the rescued family was set down at that moment.
At Joshua's instructions, the young men who had been spies went to Rahab's house and brought her out, together with her father, mother, brothers and all she had, to the area near the camp of Israel, though not into the camp (vv. 22-23).
Two verses later the record says she lived in Israel from then on, and the New Testament traces her line further still.
So she was brought out, and so she was brought in. Saved out of the doom of Jericho, into all the royal privileges of Israel. Grace moved the harlot of Jericho and made her the most honoured mother in Israel. She became a mother in that royal line from which David, and David's greater son, came. She became the wife of Salmon, the father of Boaz (Matt. 1:5). God dealt kindly and truly with her, and with everyone in that wicked city who believed the word of the Lord.
The city was doomed. That fact shapes what these two men were sent into it to do.
But it was to save sinners out of this already doomed city. God's testimony had gone out against it. The city, the king, and all the men of valour were given to Joshua for destruction. But there were some to be saved out of it — some who would not come into judgment. God's faithful servants were intent on saving them.
Joshua never told the spies to promise anything to anyone in Jericho. They made the promise themselves, and God stood behind it.
They were not entrusted with such a task, and were under no orders about it. Yet they carry it out at once, without holding back. They have no doubt about their right to do so, and they act with full confidence and decision. This is more precious than we can think! They had heard nothing from their captain about such a thing. Yet they pledge deliverance to Rahab. They make the safety of that Canaanite as full and as perfect as that of any Israelite in the camp — as rich and complete even as their own.
- Brought out — she was safe from judgment in the very place where judgment was falling.
- Brought out whole — no one in that house lost a hair, and Rahab lost nothing she owned. The token in the window was enough.
- Brought out together — her faith covered her parents, her brothers and all her relatives. God records its full width.
- Brought out, then in — outside the camp at first, she ends up inside Israel's royal privileges and in David's family line.
- Brought out by grace — no one ordered the spies to promise deliverance. They gave this Canaanite a safety as complete as their own.
And they burned the city with fire, and all that was therein; only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of copper and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of Jehovah.
Jericho falls, and Israel burns it — everything except the metals, which go straight into God's treasury. That raises two questions: why do God's people gain nothing from their first victory, and why does God keep the silver and gold?
Commentators read Jericho as a picture of the world that God has already sentenced. The city's own name works against it.
Jericho is a striking picture of the world under the curse. God devoted it to complete destruction, just as we know He has done with the world. However pleasant its surroundings, the city sat by Jordan, the "river of death," very close to the Salt Sea, the sea of judgment, into which that river flows. The name Jericho means "Sweet Savor," in striking contrast with what the city was to God. The whole land really stank before God, and God branded this city of Jericho with His special curse.
The order of events matters. Mercy reached Rahab and her family first, and the fire came after. One writer sums it up in a phrase.
And so it was done: grace spared before judgment... The word of mercy was not forgotten in the hour of victory: "Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive... because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho."
The silver, gold, bronze and iron did not survive the fire by accident. God had spoken about them in advance, and He kept them because they were already His.
Joshua told them that Jericho and everything in it lay under God's curse. It all belonged to God alone. Israel had to destroy the city completely, and fire had to burn away its defilement. Whatever survived the fire, the silver and the gold, the people were to bring into the treasury of Jehovah, because He had said, "The silver and the gold are Mine." He claimed the metals that fire cannot destroy as His own.
The place they went to had a settled use in Israel's worship:
One part of the temple was called 'the treasury.' It held the things set apart for Jehovah, such as the gold, silver, and vessels of brass and iron captured from Jericho (Joshua 6:19). The people also brought their free-will offerings there (Mark 12:41, 43).
The choice of materials carries meaning. These metals pass through fire instead of perishing in it.
These were things that could resist the fire of God's judgment. Fire would only purify them, not destroy them. They all picture spiritual things that, used rightly, bring glory to God and blessing to the whole congregation. Gold, for instance, speaks of the glory of God. But people who only claim to be religious, deceived by Satan's attractions, badly abuse that glory... The same is true of silver, which speaks of redemption, and which men's religions also misuse. Bronze, or copper, pictures the holiness of God, but in a profitable religion it also becomes mere merchandise.
The victors walk away from the ruins with nothing. One writer ties this to how faith treats the world.
Faith makes no compromise with the world, receives and takes nothing from it. God forbids the people to touch the spoil of Jericho; it is accursed. Jehovah can claim these things and glorify Himself by them; they belong to Him, but not to the children of Israel, who can only touch them to put them into "the treasury of the house of the Lord."
Later campaigns went differently, which makes this first one a special case:
In the taking of Jericho, Jehovah had already shown that His might alone gave the victory... The gold and silver were Jehovah's, so the people were not to seek the treasures of the conquered world, or enrich themselves with its spoils. As a rule, though, once Israel had destroyed their enemies, they took everything, just as they took the promised land.
The next chapter tells of Achan's theft. This verse marks the line he crossed.
Not a shred nor a shekel from Jericho did God allow Israel for their personal glory or wealth. Those called to carry out God's judgment on the Canaanites were to take nothing for themselves. Yet Achan laid hands on both the garment and the gold. He took what was cursed and doomed to the fire, and what was set apart for Jehovah's treasury.
- Doomed — Jericho pictures the world under God's curse. Its pleasant name hid what the city really was to Him, and it burned with everything in it.
- Delivered — grace worked before judgment. Joshua saved Rahab and her household alive, and then the fire fell.
- Distinguished — the fire destroyed all that could burn, but it only purified the metals. Gold and silver picture God's glory and redemption, which men misuse.
- Deposited — the metals that survived went where consecrated gifts belonged. God had already said the silver and the gold were His.
- Denied — Israel gained nothing from this first victory. Later cities were different, and Achan's grab at the devoted gold shows how serious the line was.
And Joshua saved alive Rahab the harlot, and her father's household, and all that she had, and she dwelt in the midst of Israel to this day; because she hid the messengers whom Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho.
The fall of Jericho ends with fire and total destruction — and with one household walking out alive. Why was this one woman spared? And how did she come to live among the people who destroyed her city?
God had sentenced the whole city, yet the record keeps coming back to the one exception.
This exception is mentioned a few times. It is meant to impress on us the reality of the grace of God, and His willingness to save souls, even though God had decreed the destruction of the city and the entire country. In the same way, today God has decreed the judgment of the world (Acts 17:31). Yet in grace He is saving souls out of the world when in faith they receive the Lord Jesus as Savior.
The two men who entered Jericho are called spies. One writer asks what they really came for.
They found a poor sinner who trembled at God's word. They showed her the way of salvation. She believed, and did not perish with those who did not believe. And this was the reason why spies entered Jericho. The Commander of the LORD's army needed no spies. He could look over the walls and highest towers of the city. He could search every man's heart.
The verse does not stop at Rahab. It lists her father's household and everyone who belonged to her. One writer asks whether her faith saved only herself.
Was she the only exception in the destruction of Jericho and its inhabitants? Did her faith count only for herself? Not at all.
The test came at the worst hour — the moment the city fell.
When an army captures a city, the attackers are not usually careful in what they do. Yet she proved, and all with her, that there was salvation for them, because the scarlet line was in the window. No one in that house had a hair of their head hurt. Rahab did not lose one thing she had owned… What a thing it is to be safe from judgment in the very place where judgment falls.
Rahab did not just survive. The verse says she made her home among Israel.
In God's kind and true dealing with her, two things must be noticed. She was brought out; and she was brought in. Out from the city of destruction — in to the privileges of Israel.
Her name carries a meaning that fits her story.
"Rahab" means "enlargement." As the psalmist says, "You have set my feet in a broad place," so this Canaanite woman could say. Not just as a picture, but in fact, she is a sinner saved from coming judgment. Her nation had filled up the measure of its sins, and the curse on it had already been announced. Among them she was a prostitute, a sinner among sinners. Yet she is a witness that from whatever "end of the earth" a soul looks to God, there is salvation for it.
The verse gives a reason for her rescue: she hid the men. The whole city had heard the same news about Israel's God.
The rest of the people had heard no less than 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… So she hid the two spies. They stood for the people to whom God gave the land by promise and oath.
To her own city, hiding them was betrayal. God read the same act differently.
What men would count an act of treason, the Searcher of hearts sees in its true light — as an act of faith.
Living in Israel "to this day" was not the end of her story. She married into Israel and appears in the line that leads to the Messiah.
Grace moved the prostitute of Jericho into the most honoured motherhood in Israel. She became a mother in that royal line — the line that gave birth to David, and to David's greater son. She became the wife of Salmon, the father of Boaz (Matt. 1:5).
One writer traces her place in that line back to one thing.
Who can doubt it was Rahab's faith that brought her into the family line? … Without faith, she would have died with those shut up in Jericho, a cursed woman of a cursed race. Faith removed that curse from her.
- Doomed — Jericho was under a settled sentence, and Rahab belonged to it as fully as anyone else in the city.
- Spared — grace saved her while judgment fell, and kept her safe in the very place where judgment landed.
- Household — the rescue reached her father, mother, brothers and all her relatives. She lost nothing she owned.
- Dwelling — grace brought her out of the doomed city and in to the privileges of Israel, and she still lived there long afterwards.
- Line — faith was the reason, and it showed itself when she hid the messengers. Faith carried her from a cursed city into the family of the Messiah.