The salvation of Rahab is due to God’s active salvation (2:1-14)
From a historical perspective, the sending of spies to spy on Jericho by Joshua was a necessary step before war.
Rahab of Jericho could not bear to see these two spies captured and helped them escape, and so the two spies promised that Rahab and her family would be saved from being destroyed, which is a natural form of gratitude.
Hence, it could seem that the salvation of Rahab was a coincidence, which saved the spies, and was merely the reward for a kind gesture.
From the perspective of the prophets, we can see that God is actively guiding and saving from behind. The start of this incident is when the spies were sent out.
If the spies had not been sent out, Rahab would not have had an opportunity to be saved.
Even if Rahab had had a heart to repent and return to God, she would eventually have been destroyed with Jericho. But God knew that there was a harlot in Jericho who really did repent and wanted to return to God, and so God gave her this chance to be saved and sent spies to her.
Why did Joshua send out spies?
Forty years prior to this incident, there had been a tragic consequence after spies were sent to spy on Canaan. Joshua had been one of those spies, and had seen the harm it brought, so why did he make the same mistake and send these spies?
Joshua 2:1 tells us that he sent the two men secretly. It can be seen that he did not want the other leaders to know about it and hence oppose his decision.
If he had such qualms, why would he still send spies? Besides, regardless of whether the report was good or bad, they would still attack Canaan, so why bother to spy?
Yet, Joshua insisted on doing this, so there must have been a strong moving in his heart to send spies. He might have wondered why there was such a strong moving of his heart, but he thought that it might be God’s work and so he obeyed and sent two spies.
We can see that truly, it is the moving of God. (James 2:25)
James referred to the two spies as messengers.
The role of messengers is different from that of spies. From the perspective of men, they were spies, and from the perspective of God, they were messengers of God. It was God who had moved Joshua to send two messengers to Jericho, with the purpose of saving Rahab’s family.
Another purpose was to show everyone that Rahab’s heart of repentance and return to God was indeed true, from the fact that she was willing to risk her life to help the spies escape. God could have erected a sign in Rahab’s house and tell Joshua not to kill Rahab’s family, but if it were to have happened this way, people would not have seen that Rahab’s faith and heart of repentance was true.
Hence, the book of James says that Rahab received messengers and sent them out by another way. Isn’t this the same as being justified by works? Rahab’s faith was not one that merely confessed with her lips, but of true repentance and return to God in her actions.
Like Rahab, the people of Jericho believed that God led the Israelites in executing His judgement upon the Canaanites, but they did not repent and turn to God like Rahab did.
Today, we also believe in God and in His judgement, but do we truly repent and turn to God? A faith that saves is not one that merely confesses with the lips and believes in the heart, but one that takes action to repent.
Therefore, like Rahab, we must resolve to repent and return to God, and no longer live a life of sin like those in Jericho, but live a godly life in this world, fearing God, because the Lord will come soon to judge the world.
Rahab’s salvation is a prefiguration of God’s salvation grace (2:15-21)
The spies said to Rahab: “We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household to your own home. And it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head.”
The spies remembered the night they left Egypt, where God had instructed them to strike the lintel and the two doorposts with blood, and none could go out of the door of his house until morning.
2. Both of these events tell us that those who have been redeemed by the Lord’s blood and who have entered the house of God should not leave the house of God, lest their blood be upon their own head.
Some believers leave the church because they are unhappy with some matters, but they ignore the warnings of the Bible that the church is the body of Christ, and those who leave this body will die.
