WOMEN OF CHRISTMAS - RAHAB - PEOPLE YELLED, WALLS FELL

RAHAB 

PEOPLE YELLED, WALLS FELL

After the two spies (who are never called by name) gave a good report to Joshua, the Lord provided the battle plan. It involved marching around Jericho for seven consecutive days following specific instructions. You can read these in Joshua 6:1-14.

Joshua 6:15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.

According to Hebraic understanding, seven is the number of perfection and completion. God had given specific instructions for the seventh day of encompassing Jericho. The people marched around the walled city seven times. On the seventh time, the priests blew their trumpets, and Joshua commanded the people to shout. He declared that God was going to give them the city. The shout was a declaration of victory even though it was yet to occur. Their faith in God was evident in this victory cry and their obedience to wage war in this unconventional way, marching around the city to claim it even while the walls still stood.

Joshua 6:17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

God said the city would be under His curse except for Rahab and the inhabitants of her house. God extended mercy and grace to Rahab and her family because of her protection of the two spies.

Joshua 6:18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

In other words, Joshua was warning them not to take spoils for themselves lest they bring a curse upon their nation, Israel. God had made similar commands after other battles as well.

Joshua 6:19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.

They were allowed to collect spoils, treasures, for the Lord rather than for themselves. They were to seize only the specified items and turn them over to the Lord’s treasury.

Joshua 6:20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

No battering rams were employed, no catapults, no tools to tear down the great wall. When the priests blew the trumpets, and the people yelled their victory cry, the walls simply fell down! If a certain pitch can break glass, perhaps the power of tens of thousands of voices shouting at the same time (possibly joined by the Holy Spirit’s voice) could crumble stone.

Joshua’s men swarmed like locusts over the rubble to conquer Jericho!

Joshua 6:21 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 army was obedient to the Lord’s command. They left no people or animals alive, not even women and children. This seems harsh or barbaric to us, but the all-encompassing judgment of God on Jericho and other Canaanite cities was due to their worship of idols and to protect and preserve Israel, His chosen people.

Joshua 6:22 But Joshua had said unto 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 hath, as ye sware unto her.

Joshua ordered the two men who had been sent in as spies to go into the city and fulfill their vow to Rahab.

Joshua 6:23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.

The two spies were a special task force sent in to extract their benefactor. They brought Rahab and her family safely back to the outskirts of the camp of the Israelites.

Joshua 6:24 And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.

Jericho was burned to the ground except for the specific items designated for the Lord’s treasury.

Joshua 6:25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Joshua allowed Rahab and her family to live as the spies had promised because of the kindness and faith she had shown in hiding them. She continued to live in Israel and must have converted to Judaism as she married Salmon. Salmon means “clothing” and by marrying Rahab, he would have provided her continued protection among the Israelites as if covering her with his mantle.

Ponder this: Rahab had covered the two spied with the drying flax. Rahab was “covered” in many ways. The promise made to her by the two spies protected her from being slaughtered. The scarlet cord served as a covering by designating the house affording protection to Rahab and her kin. Salmon covered Rahab by taking her as his wife, making her a member of the community.

Those of us who are believers, no matter how undeserving we are, are covered with the robe of Jesus’ righteousness. We are protected from the wrath of the Father because we are covered and purchased with the blood of Jesus. Praise the Lord for covering you!

Rahab stuck her neck out for those two spies Joshua sent to Jericho. She could have been executed for harboring the enemy if someone had discovered that she orchestrated their escape. Although she had once been a harlot, by God’s grace she was listed in the lineage of Jesus found in Matthew’s gospel.

Matthew 1:5 (KJV) And Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;

You probably know the next begat – Jesse was the father of King David. The Messiah was prophesied to be a descendant of David, and Matthew and Luke both present a lineage of Jesus that shows He was that promised One.

Hebrews 11:31(KJV) By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

Rahab believed that the Israelites were the people of the true God who preserved them. She had not known a god who preserved and protected until she heard of the God of the Israelites. The god of her people in Jericho demanded that children be killed as a sacrifice to him. This verse in the Hebrews Hall of Faith indicates that Rahab put her trust in the Lord, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the only true God.

James 2:25 (KJV) Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

Rahab’s works proved her trust in God. They were evidence of her faith.

Question: Why would God include a harlot who lied in the lineage of Christ? Was it only because she hid the spies or was it due to her faith in Him that made her bold enough to protect them? Bottom line is that once again we see the grace of God. There is no way any of us can earn the distinction of being a child of God by our works. We are made His children when by His grace, He calls us and gives us faith to trust in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.