Jesus in the Old Testament 24:

The Gospel and Rahab

Joshua 2, 6

 

Thesis: Salvation, in the NT, is clearly based on faith and grace, but many see the OT as so thoroughly different that even salvation operates dissimilarly.  The story of Rahab is a clear example of God’s salvific formula operating consistently in the Old Testament as it does in the New.

 

1. Nutshell w/Kids
1. How do people get saved?  What happens?
2. Do you think that this is the way it always worked? Or do you think it was different in the Old Testament?
3. There is a story in Joshua 2 about a woman who lived a sinful life and came to be one of God’s people, and her story is very similar to how it would have happened today. (recount)
1. She heard and believed.
2. She made a confession of faith
3. She stopped living her sinful life and did her best to obey the Lord.
4. She joined God’s people in fellowship.
5. Later on, the Bible mentions her twice as a person of faith.
6. She was even included in the family line of Jesus.
4. God loves people, and it has always been his plan to save them by faith.

 

2. Deeper w/Adults
1. Previous instructions regarding people of the land. Deut 20:10-18
1. For cities “far from you,”

a)    Offer peace

b)    Besiege those who reject peace

c)    Kill men

d)    Leave women, children, and livestock as plunder.

2. For cities “near you” and those of the “ite” tribes of Canaan

a)    Utterly destroy, save alive nothing that breathes.

b)    Devote to destruction, like an offering to the Lord in judgment

3. Why? Not an “ethnic cleansing.”

a)    Vs 18: That they will not teach you the abominable practices of their worship of their gods and so make you sin.

b)    Similarly, Deut 7:1-5.

c)    The point is purity of worship, not of DNA.

d)    The danger of the situation is borne out in history.

(1)  Psa 106:34-39

(2)  Neh 13:23-27

4. The situation, then, was one where the disposition of God toward the people of the lad was one of judgment because of their sin and idolatry, and He had declared that they were bound for destruction. 
1. But then, there’s Rahab. Josh 2
1. Vs 1-3.

a)    Josh sends an advanced-scouting party to spy out the land before they attack (vs 1)

b)    They stay in a brothel?  She lives in an apartment built into the wall, which some archaeological evidence suggests was a common practice in the time for the location of an inn. 

c)    The leaders of the city know where to look for visitors (vs 3), which would not have been so easy if her home were simply a brothel.

d)    Rahab is specifically introduced as a prostitute, but there is no indication that the spies took advantage of this fact.  They seem only to lodge there.

e)    Some commentators attempt to limit her perception as a harlot because the word Zona, used here, is used in some extra-biblical sources as an innkeeper as well as a prostitute.  Certainly, she was also an innkeeper, since that is the clear sense in which the spies employed her.

f)     However, the Septuagent uses the word “porne” to describe her, and both of her references in the NT use that word as well.  It only refers to a prostitute, not an innkeeper.

g)    She was a pagan, a member of the tribes whose utter destruction has been declared, and a member of a sinful profession.

2. Rahab’s deceit, Vs. 4-7.

a)    Lies to the city officials. Sin to lie? Act of war

b)    She hides the men in stalks of flax on her roof. 

(1)  She also made linen, as evidenced by the presence of flax.

(2)  She had a roof to her apartment, high on the wall.  There would not have been windows lower down.

3. Rahab’s confession vs. 8-14

a)    Remember that those who are saved are saved by faith (Gen 15:6; Psa 106:31; Rom 4:3-6)

b)    Confession of one’s faith leads to salvation (Rom 10:9-13).

c)    Salvation is not tied to heredity of blood, but to faith in the one true God. (Rom 2:25-29)

d)    We see here that Rahab knew enough about God (his reputation based on the reports of those nations the Hebrews had encountered) to know that he was

(1)  going to destroy the Canaanites in the land and give it to the Hebrews and

(2)  a God of compassion for those who came to him on faith. 

(3)  Notice as well that God’s judgement of others can draw people who witness it to saving faith!

e)    Her confession (vs 11).

f)     Her motivation is for the physical lives of her family members (vs 12-13), but she uses language from the new covenant.  While she is after the preservation of her physical life, her faith will preserve her spiritual life as well.

g)    The spies agree to the spirit of her request immediately (vs 14)

4. The details of the covenant vs 15-21.

a)    The spies clarify that they will only spare those in her house.  They don’t know who her relatives are and won’t ask while they are destroying the city.  Also, if she breaks her silence, they will not spare her or her family.

b)    She must tie the scarlet cord that they used to escape in the window to identify her home.

c)    She obeys.

5. The Christ connection.

a)    “Rope” H: Chebel, is always used in one of two ways in the OT. 

(1)  To measure out a plot of land

(2)  As a means of bondage or slavery.

b)    A different word for the scarlet cord in vs 18. H: Tiqwah.  Only used twice as a cord or thread, both in this chapter.  Every other usage (192 times) it has to do with hope or expectation.  Odd word choice, unless it’s intentional!

c)    Rahab was to hang a “scarlet hope” outside her window.  All in the house would be saved.  This is a clear reference to Exodus 12 and the Passover.

d)    Ex 12:21-28

(1)  Blood, red hope, on the outside of the home.

(2)  All inside would be spared.

(3)  Testimony of God’s protection for generations to come (Rahab’s memory, below)

(4)  Obedience and worship executed in faith by both Rahab (2:21) and the people (12:28).

e)    Christ is the fulfillment of Passover lamb imagery.

(1)  Isa 53:7

(2)  John 1:29

(3)  1 Cor 5:7

f)     Christ’s sacrifice is figured here, as well, in three days of hiding (Josh 2:16).

6. Rahab’s outcome, Josh 6:22-25

a)    The oath is remembered.  Nobody in her home is killed.

b)    “All who belonged to her Joshua saved alive.” vs 25

c)    Set outside the camp temporarily for matters of ritual uncleanness (Lev 13:46)

d)    She obviously did not remain outside, as she and her father’s household lived amongst the Hebrews at the time that the account was written down (probably a final edit from Joshua’s notes and accounts after his death).

e)    Her declaration of faith, supported by the testimony of her actions, wrought her salvation and membership in Israel (Jas 2:14-17).

f)     Included, not only in Israel but in the line of King David and of Christ (Matt 1:5,6).

7. Rahab’s memory is one of faith in a Sovereign God and resulting obedience.

a)    An entry in the “hall of faith” Heb 11:31

b)    An example of faith in action in James 2:25.

c)    Both passages assume her faith based on the testimony of her deeds.

d)    If we looked at the record of your deeds, would your faith be assumed?

8. We see then that every step of the salvific journey that we know so well in the New testament was experienced by Rahab, a gentile saved by grace through faith, whose transformation was borne out by her works and verified by others.

 

Discussion Questions:

1. Rahab was not a Jew.  Why is it a big deal that she was included in the family of Jesus?
2. How did Rahab become one of God’s people? 
3. How is this experience similar to your own?
4. Why is it important that we see that God saves in the same today as He has always has?