The Prostitute and the Spies

"Rae", as her friends may have called her, may not have been very successful at her chosen occupation, however. After all, her house was in one of the worst possible places in the city. Her city was surrounded by a huge, high, stone wall and the worst place for an apartment was in the wall - an actual part of it. That was a really bad place to have your home. If an enemy happened to decide to attack the city, the first thing they'd do was break down the wall and POOF! there went your house.

It's kind of strange when you think about it. Here she was, living in a heathen city where morals were not very high to begin with and yet she was looked down upon by her neighbors and forced to live in the most dangerous and least respectable place in town.

Poor Rae. Of course she did not know that in a few short years she would become part of a royal family line, the great-great-grandmother of a king.

The men probably came at about sundown, before the gates of the city were closed. They weren't likely to have entered the city during broad daylight. Just the difference in clothing would have told people the men were strangers and under the circumstances being identified as a stranger was a very dangerous thing. They were spies - secret agents. Their mission was to check out the city's defenses so their army would know what they were up against when they attacked.

It wasn't as though an attack would be unexpected by Rae's people. They had known it was bound to come for almost forty years. Oh, they had hoped it wouldn't happen but they knew how hopeless that hope really was. After all, larger cities and nations had already been attacked and beaten, literally slaughtered - men, women and children. The city had prepared as best as they could. Adding to the wall, making more weapons, stocking food and other supplies against a possible siege. But they were afraid; very afraid. There was something about this people from the desert. They were invincible. Their gods must be inconceivably powerful.

As so often happens, even the best plans don't always work as they should. Somebody had seen the spies in town and had spread the word. Now the only chance the men had was to hide. But, where? That's where Rae - her real name was Rahab - came in. She not only knew who these men were but she knew why they were there. And she had a couple of things going for her that other people in the city did not.

First, she somehow knew about the God these men served. She wasn't fooled like so many of the townfolk were into thinking of the Israelites' God as something like the foolish images her people worshipped. She seemed to know Who He was. Second, she also knew that no matter what her people did, they were done for.

So she decided to do whatever she could to save her life and the lives of her family. First she would help the spies to hide out. Just before the men from the king of the city came to her house, she hid the spies. She hid them on the roof of the wall under a pile of flax which she had laid out for drying. They weren't found!

After the heat was off, and the men had gathered their necessary intelligence (most of it probably from Rahab herself), she helped them escape. She had exacted a promise from them to spare her and her family.

When Israel attacked, the promise the spies had made to Rahab was honored. Out of that entire city-state, Rahab and her family were the only survivors.

Rahab was a gentile and would normally have no place among the Israelites except as a servant. But because of her faith - in the spies and, by association, with the God they served - God honored her. He not only provided for her survival with her entire family but designated her to be the great-great-grandmother of David, King of Israel.

Her daughter-in-law? Ruth, the Moabitess, David's great-grandmother.

It's quite a story - a story of adventure, courage, faith and God's faithfulness. It's also an essay on how God can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A prostitute becomes an ancestor of Jesus Christ, Himself.

You can read it for yourself in the book of Joshua, chapter 2 and part of chapter 6. You can read Rahab's genealogy in the last few verses of the book of Ruth and the first few verses of the Gospel according to Matthew.