Rahab

In this message, we examine how God used a woman in the Old Testament with a checkered past, and her legacy in the New Testament. Click here for the recording of this 10/26/25 Service, and you can fast-forward to 40:10 to get to the start of the sermon.

Our text comes from Joshua 2.1

1And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there.

Intro…

• If our text ended there, it might serve as just another salacious story about a wayward politician (or preacher)

• Rahab was involved in selling her body, sometimes referred to as the “oldest profession in the world”

• Fortunately, for many, her story does not end there

What is happening in the text

V1- Joshua, as leader of the Hebrews, sent 2 spies to Jericho; they go to Rahab’s house, a known prostitute, because this would have been a logical place to gather information

V2- somehow, the king of Jericho was informed of their presence

V3- the king ordered rahab to give them up

V4- she refused and hid them

V5- she lies to the king, saying they have fled

V6- she hid them on her roof, among the flax put there to dry

V7- the king’s men give pursuit

V8-11- “we have heard of your reputation, and that of your God; of His parting the red sea, your destruction of the amorites; your god is the only god”

V12-13- “swear an oath of protection for my family”

V14- they promise to protect her family

V15- she let them escape via a rope from the window of her apartment in the city wall

V16- she told them to hide in the hills for 3 days

V17-21- “hang a red rope from your window as a sign for our men to avoid raiding your apartment; keep your promise to protect us, and we will protect you”

V22-24-  they fled to the hills and waited 3 days while their pursuers searched in vain; the spies returned and reported to Joshua, who laid further plans

Rahab’s legacy in the Bible

• Josephus mentions that Rahab kept an inn, but was silent regarding her other income sources

• Mt 1.5 mentions her as the great, great grandmother of King David; as such, an ancestor of Jesus Himself

• Heb 11.31 mentions that she did not perish because of her work with the spies

• James 2.25 says she was “justified” (dikaioō- declared righteous in God’s sight) by protecting the spies

How this story applies to us

1. Good people sometimes do bad things- “there is good in the worst of us, and bad in the best of us”
   - Dobbins quoting james Truslow Adams

2. Most of us have stories of our lives that we would rather leave unpublished

3. The blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin

4. The ground at the foot of the cross makes us all the same size

5. Let’s make Cornerstone a place of redemption and healing- “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation…”