In this study we will take a look at the women within the Bible. We will look at each one of them and see how their story influences our lives today.
As we continue our study in this fantastic insight of the Women of the Bible, this morning we take a look at Rahab the harlot.
"Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of Yahweh before you."—Matthew 21:31
The unforgettable woman of the city of Jericho (place of fragrance), of whose faith the Holy Spirit hath given such honorable testimony, Hebrews 11:31. Her name is derived from Raah, and signifies “proud”. And if there be anything upon earth to make sinful dust and ashes proud, surely the faith this woman possessed formed the strongest temptation to it; when we consider who she was, what she was; where she lived, and how she acted in the cause of Yahweh. Her history is as great and striking, in the illustrious acting’s of her faith, as any in the records of truth.
She was one of the inhabitants of Canaan, a Gentile, an alien, and by nature an enemy to the commonwealth of Israel, "without hope, and without Yahweh in the world." Moreover, she was, as we say, a publican, and a harlot, not only kept an inn, exposed to numberless temptations, but a woman of ill-fame, notoriously known for such a character. She lived also in the accursed city of Jericho, a city devoted to destruction before Yahweh, and of peculiar disposition of evil in Yahweh’s sight. And yet with all those disadvantages, this Rahab, this harlot, was a believer in Adonai Yahweh of Israel! Oh, the wonders of distinguishing grace! And what tends yet more to raise our views of Yahweh’s peculiar manifestation and love to this poor harlot is the consideration that from the stock of this woman, after the flesh, Yahweh appointed the future advent of his dear Son. By her marriage to Salmon; from who sprang Boaz; and by the marriage of Boaz with Ruth, sprang Obed; and from Obed, Jesse; and from Jesse, David; and from David, after twice fourteen generations after the flesh, sprang Yahshua Messiah. (See Matthew 1:1-17) What subjects of wonder the glorious redemption by Yahweh / Yahshua Messiah involves in it! Here, as in a thousand instances besides, we learn that Yahweh’s ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts!
Brief Summary: Before the Israelites cross the Jordan, Joshua sends men to scout out the land. Arriving in Jericho, they decide to spend the night at the house of the prostitute Rahab. When Jericho’s ruler tries to apprehend them, Rahab hides them and then helps them escape through the window, thus saving their lives. In return, she and her household are spared the destruction of Jericho and become part of the people Israel. Using the window gives a positive spin to a biblical window motif that casts a negative light on other biblical women. In saving the spies, Rahab acts as head of her household. She also functions as a prophetic voice anticipating Israel’s occupation of the land.
A Canaanite woman living in Jericho, Rahab is a prostitute who is also a biblical heroine. According to the narrative in Joshua 2, before the conquest of Canaan, Joshua sends two men as spies to see the land. They come to Rahab’s house for lodging, information, and/or sex. The king, hearing about the two men, demands that Rahab give them up. Like the midwives in Egypt, Rahab is faced with a “moment of truth.” Like them, Rahab defies the ruler and rescues the Israelites. She tells the king’s men that the two men have left and that the king’s men should chase them. Meanwhile, she has hidden the men under the flax drying on her roof (2:4); the writer uses the unusual word tizpeno, “she hid him” (even though there are two men), perhaps as an allusion to Exod 2:2, where Moses’s mother hides her newborn (tizpenehu). Rahab is midwife and mother to Israel in its beginnings in Canaan.
1. A harlot named Rahab = throughout the history of Christianity, it has embarrassed some Bible interpreters that these two spies went to the house of a prostitute. Some have tried to say that Rahab was merely an “innkeeper,” but the description of her as a harlot in Hebrews 11:31 confirm that she was a prostitute. The Targum of Jonathan says it was the house of a woman, an innkeeper.
Heb 11:31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
Harlot = Greek por'-na; a strumpet, other words a prostitute; figuratively an idolater: - harlot, whore.
An harlot = Hebrew “zaw-naw'”; A primitive root (highly fed and therefore wanton); to commit adultery (usually of the female, and less often of simple forniciation, rarely of involuntary ravishment); figuratively to commit idolatry (the Jewish people being regarded as the spouse of Yahweh)
2-3 There is little doubt, from what happened afterwards, that these men of Yahweh had spoken of their Yahweh, and had borne in faithful testimony the unhallowed atmosphere of that house; and now came a time when the woman must decide whether she should take part with Yahweh's people or whether she would be the means of their destruction. She chose for Yahweh, took the two men, and hid them, at the risk of her own life. She returned answer:
"There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were and it came to pass, about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went, I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them.
4-5 Rahab told a lie, and a lie is one of the worst of sins in the sight of Yahweh. But let us remember that this poor woman had never heard the Ten Commandments, and did not know the difference between sin and righteousness. Paul says: "I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shall not covet…For without the law sin was dead." (Romans 7:7-8.) So it was with Rahab; she had not learned it was a sin to tell a lie; it was in her a sin of ignorance.
She had brought the men to the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order upon the roof, ready for the winter spinning. Rahab had placed her life in danger because she had been so deeply impressed with the fact that their Yahweh was the true Yahweh; and we may be sure that, at the same time, she repented of her sinful life.
11 After the officers of justice had left her house and gone to pursue after the spies, supposing that Rahab had told them the truth, she came to her hidden guests, and said to them:
"I know that Yahweh hath given you the land." These very words bear witness that somebody had spoken to her about Yahweh, and the thought had taken possession of her. She had begun to fear Yahweh, and "the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom" (Psa. 111:10), and she said: "I know that…your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt." From these words we may gather that however wicked may have been Rahab's former life, as soon as she heard of the Mighty Yahweh who could perform a miracle for the sake of His people, an awful and respectful sense of this Yahweh had taken possession of her mind, and she had learnt to regard Him as greater even than the king of her country.
"As soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you; for Yahweh your Elohim, He is Elohim in heaven above, and in earth beneath."
Putting herself at risk, Rahab rejected her past identity as a Canaanite and wanted to be identified with the people of Yahweh, with Israel.
This woman was not ashamed of the measure of faith which she had in Yahweh. She believed that life and death were in His hands, and so she said:
"Now, therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by Yahweh, since I have shown you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death."
Rahab had become, not a believer only, but an intercessor. She sought not only her own life, but the lives of her family. I wish that every Yahshua Messiah believer were as noble and as zealous for the souls of their family as was this once heathen woman!
Hebrews 11:31 notes Rahab’s faith and sets her in contrast to the unbelieving of Jericho and Canaan: By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.
Rahab demonstrated her faith in many ways.
· By believing the reports of what Yahweh had done for and through Israel.
· By declaring the truth about Yahweh.
· By seeing the greatness of the Yahweh of Israel and choosing Him over the gods of the Canaanites.
· By forsaking the gods and values of her culture.
· By receiving the Israelite spies with peace.
· By hiding the Israelite spies and refusing to turn them over to the Canaanites.
· By asking for the salvation of her family.
· By persuading her family to also trust the Yahweh of Israel.
· By marking her home as a place of faith as instructed.
· By leaving Jericho behind and becoming part of the people of Yahweh.
Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!
Have any questions? Feel free to email me; [email protected]
