Lesson 25 – Rahab
Read Hebrews 11 - www.bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.esv

Our last look at a person’s faith is that of Rahab. Her story can be found in Joshua 2 and 6. In our Hebrews chapter, in verse 31, we are simply told that Rahab was a prostitute and was saved by a single act of faith in God.

But let’s go back to that story and see some of the things that are there but might not seem important to us.

First, in Joshua 2:6 we are told where her home was – on the wall of Jericho, and at the top of that wall. History and archaeology tell us that homes of this location were reserved for the rich and important people of the city. Also, the king of the city demanded she give up the spies from Israel – if she had been someone of no importance, the soldiers would simply have broken down her door – no one would have needed the permission of the king to raid her home.


Secondly, Rahab and the people of Jericho knew how God had been working in the lives of the people of Israel. They had been following the movements of this group of people for at least 40 years and had heard all the conquests God had given them in the meantime. So they would also have known of the King of Moab’s plan to use prostitutes to bring these people into disfavor with God – as we see in Numbers 25. Temple prostitutes were sent into the camp of Israel to lure the men away from God to serve another. For this sin, God judged Israel so that 24,000 people died for the sin of following prostitutes to another god.

And yet, in spite of God’s punishment, He had still blessed them with victories after this incident. Rahab, and the people of Jericho knew and feared the God of Israel.

Rahab’s faith in God could not see a way out for herself, yet, in her desperation to be free of what she had always been, to serve a God she could understand as being more powerful than any other god she had ever encountered, she asked for safety at the hands of the spies who had come to her for protection.

Did the spies think Rahab and her family could be saved? We don’t know, but we do know they saw the result of her desperate faith in God. And God answered her faith with blessings far more than she could ever have imagined. She became the wife of an Israelite man – but not just any man. Salmon was essentially the crown prince of the Tribe of Judah, and Salmon and Rahab became the ancestors to King David – from whom Jesus Christ was born. Rahab, once a prostitute in the idolatrous city of Jericho, became one of only four women who are specifically named in the ancestry records for Jesus.

 When you are desperate, do you throw yourself on God in faith, knowing that if He doesn’t come through you will die?