1. RAHAB IS OUTSIDE THE FAITH
     A. She was Poor. One of the people who lived on top of the walls of Jericho was a woman named Rahab. We see in verse 6 stalks of flax (three or four feet or about one meter long) drying on the roof. We also see that Rahab was the one who put the grain there. It appears that her family were poor farmers; probably raising their grain outside the city walls, then bringing it into this squatter house to dry, and then to sell at the city market.

     B. She was a Prostitute. Rahab is mentioned in five chapters in Scripture (Joshua 2:1,3; 6:17, 23, 25; Matthew 1:5; Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25). In four of these chapters it uses one word, the same word to describe who she was. It says, "Rahab the harlot," the prostitute, the one who sold her body to men for money. So here we have a poor, unmarried woman. Verses 12-13 says she feels the responsibility to take care of her family, who is evidently so poor that she isn't able to survive on the money she makes from farming and so she sells her body for money.

     C. She was a Pagan Foreigner. Rahab was a Canaanite. The Canaanites didn't believe in the true God. They offered their baby children as sacrifices to Baal; they did witchcraft, and their temples were filled with prostitution. Rahab and the Canaanites were in darkness. Verse 9 says that were in "terror." Verses 9, 24 says that they were "fainthearted." In verse 11 Rahab says, "our hearts melted, neither did there remain more courage in anyone. They had heard the stories of what happened to Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea and how two great Amorite Kings had been defeated. They were afraid but as a nation the Canaanites chose to fight God instead of trust in Him.

2. RAHAB CONFESSES HER FAITH
     Joshua sends out two spies to check out the land. Perhaps they got into the city, pretended to be Canaanites and met Rahab on the street, where she was selling herself. Perhaps they met her at her farm outside the walls and finding that her house was right on top of the wall they thought this would be a good place to spy from and an easy wall to escape from. Anyway, "they went, and came to the house of a harlot, named Rahab, and lodged there."

     Evidently, someone saw them and reported this to the king. So the king sent his policemen to her house and to bring them out. But she had hidden these two spies up on the rooftop among the grain. And in verses 4-5 she told the policemen that yes these two men did come to her house but they had already left and she didn't know where they were from or where they were going to.

     After the police left she went back up to the roof where they were hiding. Then in verses 9-11 she confesses her faith to them. She says,

Joshua 2:9-11

"I know that the LORD has given you the land ... for the LORD your God, He is God in Heaven above and on earth."

Wow! First, she refers to God as "YAHWEH." She didn't use a Canaanite name for God, but the name that the Hebrew people used for their personal God. Second, she spoke of the takeover of Canaan by God's people as if it had already happened. She said, "I know that the LORD has given you the land." And third, she testifies that she has put her faith and trust in this YAHWEH, the God of Israel, the one true God. "The LORD your God, He is God in Heaven above and on earth."

3. RAHAB DEMONSTRATES AND SHARES HER FAITH
     Rahab (followed by her family) were the only ones in Jericho who didn't prepare for battle to fight against God's chosen people. When Rahab trusted in the true God, she was going against her culture and she risked her own life and the life of her family. My friend, do you have Rahab's kind of saving faith, a faith that puts you on God's side rather than with the secular culture? It's easy to believe as everybody else believes, but it's difficult to be the first one in your family to believe; to believe something alone, when no one else agrees with you. Rahab stood alone. Dead fish always float down the stream, but the living fish forces its way against the flow. When Rahab hid the spies, If the rulers of her city had found out that they were there and that she was hiding them, she would have been killed as a traitor to her own people. But Rahab risked her life and put her trust in the God of Israel. She believed and was saved. After Jericho was destroyed and burned with fire Joshua 6:25 says,

Joshua 6:25

"And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had. So she dwells in Israel to this day."

     What's amazing in the testimony of Rahab is that this poor, sinful, ungodly woman is not only saved but Matthew 1:5 says that she was actually the mother of Boaz and the great-grandmother of King David. And through her seed came the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

     Then in Hebrews 11, which is the great chapter on people of faith. At least 16 people are mentioned in this chapter by name and only two of them are women. One of them was Sarah, Abraham's wife. And verse 31 says,

Hebrews 11:31

"By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace."

In James 2 her faith is compared to Abraham's. It says in verse 25,

James 2:25

"Likewise, Rahab the harlot was also justified ... when she received the messengers and sent them out another way."

     What a testimony - a poor, Canaanite prostitute puts her faith in the God of the Bible. If God can save her He can save anyone. It doesn't matter what you have done in your past you can be forgiven of all of it. If you think your father or brother is too bad of a person remember God specializes and loves to save those kind of people.

by Steve Nicholes
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