If you’ll please turn with me in your Bibles, we will begin with the gospel of Matthew, chapter 1.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah the father of Perez and Zarah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.
From Matthew, we will turn back to the Book of Joshua, chapter 2, beginning at the first verse.
And 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 to the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, ‘Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.’ Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, ‘Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.’
But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, ‘True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went; pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.’ But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof.
So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords, and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, ‘I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came up out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.
And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.’
And the men said to her, ‘Our life for yours, even to death, if you do not tell this business of ours. Then when the Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.’ Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, ‘Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned; then afterward, you may go on your way.’
The men said to her, ‘We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie the scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household.
Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.’
And she said, ‘According to your words, so be it.’ Then she sent them away, and they departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went into the hills and remained there about three days until the pursuers returned. And the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing.
And the two men returned and came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun and told him all that had happened to them. And they said to Joshua, ‘Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands, and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us.’
From there we see the end of her story in chapter 6, beginning at verse 17. Joshua is addressing the people and says, ‘And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and make trouble upon it.
But all silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.’ So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.
Then they devoted all the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys with the edge of the sword. But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, ‘Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belonged to her, as you swore to her.’
So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. They burned the city with fire and everything in it, but only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.
But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive, and she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Lord, we ask you to open our hearts and our minds to illuminate us to your work, to help us to see your peace in the world, both in the past and in our present. Help us to rest in that hope of the peace that is and the peace that is yet to come. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So as we consider these notable women, ancestors of Jesus, this Advent season, I expect that we may continue to be surprised by their expressions of faithfulness, of their personal trust in the Lord, and the great impact which they had upon redemptive history, because they are not always considered the star within their own story.
Eve is often relegated to the position of scapegoat, receiving all the blame for the fall despite the Apostle Paul laying that responsibility squarely upon Adam’s shoulders. I mean, Adam was so responsible that I cannot help but imagine that after they were exiled from God’s garden, he probably became a bitter man, at least somewhat.
I mean, work had become toil. The means of survival for his family had become uncertain. His first two sons, in whom he may have probably shared Eve’s hope that one of them would triumph over the serpent, were either killed or lost to the future. But regardless, Eve carried on and bore Adam yet another son, Seth, from whose descendants Jesus would be born.
Through it all, Eve remains in the background of the story, even though her participation and contribution were not only necessary but critical to our ultimate redemption.
Rahab is another such woman often left in the background. I mean, she was a critical player in the story of Israel’s establishment, yet she is left to languish in the shadows. She’s either remembered negatively because of her profession as a prostitute in Jericho, or she gets erased from the story entirely by Mahalia Jackson’s catchy tune, ‘Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho,’ and the walls came tumbling down, because there’s no verse about her in that song.
But without her contributions to Israel’s conquest of Canaan would have surely gone very differently. I mean, to set the scene, the first time Israel sent spies into the land when Moses brought them to Canaan, after leaving Mount Sinai, ten of the twelve spies gave a disheartening report which caused Israel to refuse to trust the Lord, and so that generation was condemned to wander in the wilderness for the next 40 years and expire.
Then when Moses brought Israel to Canaan again and transferred the mantle of leadership to Joshua, the son of Nun, one of the two optimistic spies from the first visit, spies were again sent to scout out the land. So it’s very reasonable to assume that Israel’s hope and confidence for their campaign depended greatly upon the spy report. Surely Joshua understood that they needed a good report this time; otherwise, the people’s trust in the Lord might again waver or even be shattered completely.
Now turning to Rahab, although her story takes place in the midst of an invasion, in the midst of war, and the midst of violent conflict, we shall see how she was an exemplary woman with a spiritual hope for peace before crossing the Jordan River to take possession of this Promised Land.
The Israelites sent their spies to Canaan, and Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, ‘Go view the land, especially Jericho.’ They went, and they came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. What a way for a woman to be first introduced! Right before her name is even given, her profession as a prostitute is set before us, front and center, defining her.
I mean, our modern culture today would have us think that that was her primary identity, that she was a prostitute first and foremost without even considering her identity as an independent woman, a daughter, a sister, or even just a citizen of Jericho.
The postmodern interpreter would not be surprised by her actions in the story because they would say that a prostitute, by nature of her profession, was a faithless woman who would be expected to only seek her own best advantage, because otherwise, she’s just dependent entirely upon the sufferance of the men who visited her. But we know that Rahab was much more than just her profession.
That’s why we need to remember that in the ancient world, prostitution was, yes, an ordinary thing, a legitimate profession for some women, although it was probably never anyone’s first choice. At that time, prostitution was the only way for a woman to be independent and exert control and authority over her own life apart from her family of origin.
Most women in the trade were only in it because, for some reason, it had become necessary. It might well have been their only choice or chance for survival. In those days, prostitution was respected as an institution, but it was not a respectable job. But still, through the benefits and income that she received from this occupation, Rahab had her own home and was self-sufficient.
Regardless of the circumstances that led her into that life, she was a self-made woman. Until this point, her hope and her trust must have been in herself and her own efforts, requiring the confidence of Adam, and her apparent present success in life was facilitated, judging by her portrayal in the story, through quick wit and firm determination.
Therefore, what happens next in her story may be a surprise. It was told to the king of Jericho, ‘Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.’ The king sent to Rahab, saying, ‘Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out the land.’ You see, the king, he knew what was up. He knew that his reign was in trouble, and he was right to be concerned, nervous, and worried even, because the Lord’s judgment and wrath was bearing down upon him quickly.
So, having been warned of the dangerous enemy within his gates, he asked Rahab to betray the spies, to give them up and save their city. Perhaps he offered her a reward, perhaps even greater personal security, or perhaps he expected her to obey him merely because he was the king. However, instead of obeying him, she betrayed the king, her people, and her city in hope for something greater and better: peace.
But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. See, Rahab, she was a professional businesswoman, so she must have known how to calculate risk. She could see that her fortunes and future would only be improved through the right investment. But against all reason and expectation, Israel’s star was on the rise while Jericho’s light was waning.
So she chose to invest in Israel and the hope of peace for herself and for her family, for their protection and safety in the face of the Lord’s and Israel’s inevitable triumph. Thus, she told the king’s men, ‘True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. When the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I don’t know where they went; pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.’
When in reality, she brought them upstairs to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out in order. She, Rahab, had committed herself to Israel. She chose to switch her allegiance from Jericho to Israel, from Jericho’s king to the Lord. Whether or not she truly understood it, her loyalty now fully belonged to the Lord God, the sovereign whom she chose to obey and in whom she was placing her trust.
We can see here the beginnings of faith, of pistis, building up within her. Now, since our youth have all been studying the Ten Commandments recently, we do need to stop and ask the question, though: Did Rahab do wrong by lying to the king’s messengers? By lying to her king, was she not bearing false witness? Did she break God’s holy law by protecting the spies, or was there something actually greater going on in the story?
See, through her defense of the spies, Rahab had joined the ranks of the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, in their civil disobedience. And like them, Rahab would be similarly blessed with a family and with children, even if she didn’t know it yet. Back in Egypt, before Moses was born, remember the midwives stood up to Pharaoh and did not tell him the truth because they were defending the newborn Hebrew boys. They lied to the king of Egypt because they were obeying a higher authority—the greater moral authority of the Lord.
Although a wrong deed done for good reasons remains wrong, their actions did not constitute wrongdoing because Pharaoh had commanded them to murder Hebrew boys just as they were being born. Pharaoh commanded them to violate God’s holy law for his own sinful purposes, wants, and desires for the hope of preserving his kingdom and his reign.
But their obedience to God, lying in defense of life, served a higher kingdom and a king greater than Pharaoh. Through his own sinful disobedience and his attempt to compel further and greater sin in others, Pharaoh lost the right to be obeyed and he lost the honor and privilege of receiving the truth.
God’s people, we are compelled and commanded to always be truthful, especially when it concerns a matter of justice and righteousness. We cannot be compelled to speak truthfully if it will lead to greater injury and/or death, to injustice or unrighteousness. The Westminster Larger Catechism explains we must not be rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous.
Therefore, remember the American Christians who sheltered runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad. They could do so in good conscience because they were protecting others against slavery’s horror and wickedness. Likewise, the German Christians who hid Jews from the Nazis could deny their presence in good conscience because they were serving the cause of justice and defending the lives of the defenseless. They were like the midwives, and with a clear conscience, Rahab lied and disobeyed the earthly king’s command to bring out the men who had come into her because by doing so, she was keeping the heavenly king’s command: ‘Thou shalt not murder’ and its positive corollary, ‘You shall preserve and defend life.’
These women exemplify the same principle that informed the apostles when they told the Jewish Sanhedrin, ‘We must obey God rather than men,’ after they had been commanded to stop preaching Jesus Christ crucified.
So our fidelity and obedience to God is more important than fidelity to sinful men concerning wickedness commanding wickedness, because the first preserves peace with God while the second perpetuates our rebellion of sin. Through her act of disobedience, by lying to her king, Rahab abandoned any hope of peace with the king or with Jericho. Her hope, her only hope now, was gained in peace with the living God.
If her deception was discovered, she faced the certain consequence of death because she had committed treason against Jericho. Yet her act of treason was different from that of Adam and Eve because here, that treason was actually an act of faithfulness, an act of unity and an act for peace.
Adam and Eve committed their sinful act of treason against the Lord because they lacked faith and trust in him, whereas Rahab chose to trust and believe the Lord God of Israel—a God whom she did not know. But she believed in all that he had done for Israel when she hid the Israelite spies. She told them, ‘I know that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you, for we’ve heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who are beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.
As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted. There is no spirit left in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.’ See, she believed in God and trusted him because news had reached Jericho that Israel had a divine right to the land of Canaan as a gift from their God.
News had reached Jericho about how the Lord parted the Red Sea and how he destroyed Pharaoh’s army when the waters returned. News had reached Jericho about how Israel defeated these kings after they attacked Israel and denied them safe passage. So from the perspective of Jericho, the Israelites were coming from out of the wilderness into Canaan like a horde of locusts. They were an invading army—unstopped and unchecked—and had not been slowed by anyone that previously rose against them.
Israel and her God were an unstoppable force, bringing inevitable divine wrath with them and leaving total destruction in their wake, as their enemies were devoted to destruction—anathematized in the Lord’s name. Even though Jericho had walls that were high and thick, and even though it should not have felt any great threat from a disorganized mob like the Israelites, the people of Jericho were afraid for their future.
Rahab knew there was no hope for Jericho, its walls, or its king. There was no hope for them to stand before the coming judgment of Israel’s God. Knowing that this judgment was just, and understanding that they were at enmity with the God of Israel, Rahab chose the path to peace—peace with God.
She preferred friendship with God to friendship with the world and chose to place her faith and confidence in Israel’s God. When she hoped for peace after preserving the lives of the Israelite spies against the wrath of Jericho’s king, Rahab asked them for a sign and a promise that her faith was not being misplaced, that she would not be betrayed by these, her new people.
‘Now then, swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house. Give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.’ Notice the story does not say that the spies asked her for aid; she volunteered it. The story does not say that the spies offered to make her a deal to save her life and the life of her family.
She already committed to helping them before she asked for this reciprocation. Rahab appears to initiate everything in the story. The questions arise: why? One might say that she did all this entirely of her own free will, her own free choice, apart from the work of God. One might cynically think that this was just a shrewd investment, diversifying her assets and limiting personal risk in case Israel won, that her choice for Israel and Israel’s God was the most rational, reasoned, and intellectual choice.
But it’s improbable—the Israelites were a people without land, resources, and without a trained army. But what they possessed was a large number of faithful men willing to go into battle through their faith alone. But most importantly, Israel had the Lord on their side.
It’s clear from the reasons that Rahab gave for her trust in Israel that the spirit of God has been at work in her and among her people. The Holy Spirit was causing their hearts to melt and increasing their fear of the Lord, adding an extraordinary fear of God’s chosen people. Because as Paul wrote, ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’
Meanwhile, Rahab was receiving and being given faith in God. So Rahab, she wasn’t trying to make a deal with God. She was not offering, ‘If you save me and my family, then I will save your people, spies.’ Instead, she was reaching out to him in desperation, reaching toward a faint light, the smallest glimmer of hope from the pit of hopelessness—praying, hopefully, ‘God, I’ve helped your people; please help me in mine.’
She was asking him for mercy—a mercy and grace she knew she did not deserve, yet it was one she hoped for. She asked God for far more in return than she was doing for him. She asked for her whole family to be saved and spared—her father, mother, brothers, and sisters, with their entire households. She went boldly before the throne of grace and asked for God’s abundant mercy because she hoped for peace with the Lord, knowing that otherwise she was utterly lost.
Responding to her kindness, her goodwill towards them, and her faithfulness towards Israel’s God, the spies replied, ‘Our life for yours, even to death, if you do not tell this business of ours. Then when the Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.’
They made her a promise. They promised mercy for her and her family because of her kindness, but it was conditioned upon her continued faithfulness. ‘If you do not tell, then we will deal kindly and fairly with you.’ This kind of agreement sounds familiar; it’s because they were actually making a covenant together.
Even if they didn’t use all the formal expressions, it was a binding agreement, and like every other covenant treaty, there was always an obligation of continuing fidelity on both sides to preserve the newly established relationship of peace.
We experience the same requirement now as Christians. Jesus has already rescued us from enslavement to the world’s king, Satan, and we are presently waiting for the fulfillment, the totality of our deliverance, which will be completed on his return when he comes in wrath with judgment against the world’s sin. Our hope and our prayer is to enjoy his peace in the midst of that chaos.
That hope is also conditional, as he said, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’ Fortunately for us, Jesus is faithful even when we’re not, because none of us love him or keep his commandments as we should. That’s the blessing of his covenant with us: he’s willing to forgive our transgressions whenever we repent.
Before we can ever repent, we first have to want to be faithful to him as well. We have to want to satisfy our conditional faithfulness. We will only want to do that if God, the Holy Spirit, is working within our hearts, drawing us nearer to him and causing us to desire him.
It is clear that Rahab was having that sanctifying work going on within her. The Lord was drawing her near to himself; he was also drawing her into his chosen people. Rahab and the Israelites made a covenant together, and Rahab asked them for a sign of that covenant to ensure her deliverance.
They commanded her, ‘You shall tie the scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down; you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. That if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless.’
It sounds like a reasonable set of instructions, doesn’t it? There doesn’t seem to be anything special about them, but actually, there is. Despite being just simple, practical, and a rather innocuous way of identifying her home to the attacking Israelites, it was a means of initiation into God’s chosen people—for her and her family’s self-identification with Israel.
Hanging the cord was a public profession of faith. It was an echo of the Egyptian Passover and symbolic of their new allegiance to the Lord. The Lord had said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ‘Tell all the congregation of Israel that every man shall take a lamb for a household, and shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lentil of the houses in which they eat it.
It’s the Lord’s Passover, for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you.’
See, that scarlet cord was like the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorpost—the blood of Christ, which also covers us. The Lord withheld the judgment of his wrath from those homes in Egypt wherever he saw the blood, passing them over and leaving them in peace.
So, too, for Israel, when they saw the scarlet cord, they would pass over her household and leave them in peace while all the rest of Jericho was destroyed in the Lord’s judgment.
She let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall so that she lived in the wall. And she said, ‘According to your words, so be it.’ She sent them away, and they departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
By tying that scarlet cord, Rahab became united into the Lord’s company for the hope of peace. Rahab protected the lives of the Israelite spies against the violence of Jericho’s king for the hope of peace. Rahab switched her allegiance to Israel and to the Lord from Jericho and its king for the hope of peace for herself and her whole family.
Rahab chose to have peace and fellowship with the Lord and earned enmity with the world. Meanwhile, beyond Jericho’s walls, two men returned. They came down from the hills and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that happened to them.
And they said to Joshua, ‘Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands, and also all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.’ So through the report of these spies, Israel’s hope and confidence in the Lord’s victorious help was reassured, and their conquest of Canaan could now commence in earnest.
But why can we speak about peace, especially God’s peace, from out of a story of invasion and conquest? War is not peace. I’m sure you think that this is an unusual story for the Advent season because everything concerning the haram, the Israelite conquest of Canaan, and the dedication of most everything to destruction in the Lord’s name is difficult and disconcerting at the best of times. How do we reconcile this violent history with the loving God of peace that we believe is revealed upon every page of sacred Scripture?
First, we have to remember what the biblical definition of peace is: shalom. Because it’s not the same as what pageant queens dream of in world peace. Shalom is wholeness and unity; it’s established order. Freedom from chaos is a consequence of peace, but that freedom is not itself peace.
The absence of conflict or strife is also a consequence of peace, but not peace. Shalom is only truly found in the wholeness of relationship that comes through our union with the Lord. As the billboards promise, ‘No Jesus, no peace,’ followed by the warning, ‘No Jesus, no peace.’
Second, we must remember who and what we are. We are dust. We are creatures fashioned by the Lord’s hand according to his will, made from out of the dirt of the earth. We are the descendants and heirs of Adam, willing participants in his rebellion against the Most High God.
Apart from Jesus Christ, we stand in firm opposition to God because we’re all separatists and all traitors against his sovereignty and his kingdom. The day on which Adam bit into the forbidden fruit was a day which will live in infamy. Adam’s act was an unfortunate declaration of independence from the Lord; it was a declaration of war and spiritual defiance against his sovereignty.
But third, this broken relationship could only be restored or repaired through some kind of reconciliation. But reconciliation could only happen after our rebellion has ceased because rebellions only ever end in one of two ways—in permanent separation and dissolution of relationship, or through conquest and forced restoration of unity.
There’s no other option. The nations and peoples of Canaan were humans in active rebellion against the sovereign God through their idolatry, their wickedness, their disobedience, and their failure to acknowledge Him as the rightful ruler of creation. Their sin was great in the eyes of God, and the time of their iniquity was now complete.
The Israelite conquest was a two-fold fulfillment because through it, God was giving Israel the land that he promised to Abraham, and through Israel, God was enacting his judgment against the sinfulness of man. But the purpose of his judgment, as always, is to restore wholeness, to end rebellion and establish peace—shalom—on the earth.
God’s wrath is not evil; it’s righteous and just. The Canaanites were not innocent—apart from Jesus Christ, there are no innocent or good people. The Apostle Paul reminds us, ‘For we have all charged that both Jews and Greeks are under sin,’ as it’s written, ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’ So the Canaanites, they had this coming, but it was still less than they deserve. Whenever we receive the judgment of God and experience it in this present life, we all get far less than we deserve because he is merciful and gracious.
We should be thanking him for his restraint instead of falsely accusing him and maligning his character by denying his justice and goodness. Eventually, under David’s son Solomon, Israel finally became that land of shalom in the midst of a sinful world. Israel became a garden of peace in the midst of an untamed wilderness.
But once more, because of human sin, the peace was shattered, and the sinful wilderness overgrew God’s garden. When Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph, when God the Son became incarnate, the Lord God himself invaded the territory which Satan has claimed ever since Adam’s betrayal.
God the Son invaded Satan’s realm to restore peace and unity, to rescue us captives from our bondage to sin and the wage of death. Jesus came to establish a kingdom of peace in the midst of a world that is at war against its rightful sovereign.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. ‘Whoever is not with me is against me; whoever does not gather with me scatters.’
Like the Israelite invasion of Canaan, the incarnation of God was God bringing the war to Satan in a battle that the Lord alone would win in his time and in his own sovereign way. Jesus came because rebellion was masquerading as peace on earth. There was a sense of wholeness and unity because all humanity, Jews and Gentiles alike, were united together in one body of sin.
They were all united in rebellion against the Lord. Jesus came to shatter this union, to dissolve this false sense of peace, and to separate his chosen people out from this world. Jesus came calling us to betray the ruler of this world and return our allegiance to the God who offers the only hope for peace—peace united into him.
Peace through union in Christ as God’s chosen people, Israel, the church, the bride of Christ. Jesus is the Prince of Peace because shalom is what shall remain once our rebellion is ended for good and all of his enemies are placed beneath his feet.
But back there in ancient Canaan, when Jericho fit the Battle of Jericho, the city was shut up before them. It was settled for a prolonged siege. But when Jericho closed and barred its gates and its people sheltered behind the rock walls in which they trusted, Rahab hung her scarlet cord from the window.
Then over the next seven days, the Israelites marched around Jericho, following behind the Lord’s priests and the Ark of God. The priests blew their trumpets for six days, but on the seventh, once they had completed their circuit, Joshua commanded the people of God to shout, ‘For the Lord has given you the city.’
And when the trumpet sounded and all God’s people shouted, the wall fell flat, so the people went up into the city, every man standing straight before him, and they captured it, and the walls of Jericho came a-tumbling down.
All of Jericho was devoted to destruction before the Lord; the offense of their sin was removed. But before the people shouted, Joshua also commanded the people, ‘And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.’
So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. They burned the city with fire and everything in it, but Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive.
Because Rahab was faithful to her promise, she kept the secret of the Israelites from her Jericho king. Rahab was faithful to Israel and to Israel’s God. She trusted them, and she trusted in the Lord to protect her and her family.
So her salvation was proven—her faith was proven—and she was justified before the people through her silence, her assistance, and by the profession of her scarlet cord. Rahab was brought into God’s people, Israel, because of her faith in the Lord, even though she did not yet know him well.
She was no longer a Canaanite; she was now an Israelite. And she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Rahab was a wild olive shoot, grafted into the Lord’s cultivated tree.
And once thus incorporated, she was no different from any other natural-born Israelite. Now that she was grafted into Israel, Rahab was married, and she bore a son in the line of Jesus—Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab.
Rahab, the former prostitute, was redeemed by God, was justified by her faith. She was now a wife and a mother and an ancestor of Jesus Christ, the Messiah to come. Now she and her whole family enjoyed the peace of God, reconciled and restored to the true wholeness that is found only in union with Christ.
So by faith, Rahab trusted in this hope of peace—a peace which she had never before found, but one that she knew she needed. So truly, the story really is one about peace: two different kinds.
Through her faith, Rahab gained peace with God, and through the Canaanite conquest, God’s people were foreshadowing a greater conflict yet to come, when God will come once again to invade the cosmos claimed by the devil, bringing judgment, justice, and wrath with him as our ancient conquered foe will be bound, chained, and finally cast into the Lake of Fire, utterly defeated.
True peace is only found through faith in Christ Jesus because he alone has reconciled his people to our Father in heaven. He has suffered the just penalty for our disobedience, and he shares his righteousness, his obedience, with us.
If you are united with him, then your rebellion is ended. God has forgiven you all of your transgressions and granted you a full pardon. If you would will this peace to last, then you must keep his commandments, because otherwise, you will not know peace.
Christians, here’s the good news and our reminder to continue trusting in this hope of peace: we are all sinners redeemed by God’s grace alone through Jesus Christ. So we do know peace every time we sin, because, unfortunately, we keep on doing—we forget the peace we have.
We forget it until the Holy Spirit reminds us and we repent of our sin, boldly asking God for forgiveness. Then, we are restored to his peace once more. Well, we are all going to stumble and we’re all going to keep falling into rebellion once more because of the sin that’s still within us, but we can trust that Jesus will always rescue us, deliver us from ourselves, and give us his peace.
Finally, whenever we wonder about the many conflicts that are recorded for us in the Bible and we begin to question if the God whom we worship is a tyrant, a bully, or just wickedly evil, we must remember that his purpose, his goal, and his will is for peace.
The imposition of his justice, like his loving discipline, is intended to restore peace. So we must trust to the same hope of peace as Rahab; our hope is in the peace that only the Lord Jesus Christ brings. Amen.