Rahab helped Israel to take Jericho

Joshua 2:1-24. Rahab helped the spies of Joshua by keeping them safe from the king of Jericho. They promised that they would save her and her family when the Israelites conquered Jericho if she would tie a scarlet cord in the window through which she let them escape and all her family remained in the same room with her. Rahab’s actions led her to become part of the family tree of Jesus and great-great-grandmother of King David after she married Salmon. They had a son called Boaz, who married Ruth. Ruth later became King David’s great-grandmother.

Because of the help of Rahab, Joshua knew what was to come and that God was in control.

In helping the spies, Rahab betrayed her own city and people. She and all her family would have been killed if the king of Jericho had found out.

Background Reading:

Rahab helped

Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down; and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household.
Joshua 2:18

Rahab helped

2:1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some
of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab:
“Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they
have come to spy out the whole land.”

4 But the woman had taken the two men and
hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know
where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was
time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they
went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden
them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the
road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers
had gone out, the gate was shut.

8 Before the spies lay down for the night,
she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, “I
know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of
you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting
in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the
LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of
Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites
east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11
When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed
because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the
earth below. 12 Now then, please swear to me by
the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown
kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you
will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters,
and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death.”

14 “Our lives for your lives!” the men
assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you
kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land.”

15 So she let them down by a rope through the
window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. 16 Now she had said to them, “Go to the hills so the
pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they
return, and then go on your way.”

17 The men said to her, “This oath you made
us swear will not be binding on us 18 unless,
when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window
through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father
and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. 19 If anyone goes outside your house into the street,
his blood will be on his own head; we will not be responsible. As for
anyone who is in the house with you, his blood will be on our head if a
hand is laid on him. 20 But if you tell what we
are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

21 “Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you
say.” So she sent them away and they departed. And she tied the scarlet
cord in the window.

22 When they left, they went into the hills
and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along
the road and returned without finding them. 23
Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded
the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had
happened to them. 24 They said to Joshua, “The
LORD has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are
melting in fear because of us.”
Joshua 2:1–24


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