A Mighty Confession

The book of Joshua gives no indication that Israel’s spies go behind enemy lines with any hope of finding a sympathizer. They do not let their guard down even in Rahab’s house, but at some point she realizes who they are. However, it seems she does not open her heart to them before the king’s men come to arrest them. We can only imagine the spies’ anxiety as the king’s men come to the house—and their surprise as Rahab hides and protects them.

In today’s passage, Rahab reveals why she is helping the spies. After the king’s men, following Rahab’s false direction, leave the city to seek the spies, she comes to their hiding place on the roof. With her words, “she gives them, and by them sends to Joshua and Israel, all the encouragement that could be desired to make their intended descent upon Canaan,” Matthew Henry writes. In short, she says, the Canaanites are absolutely terrified by the Israelites. News of God’s miraculous deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea and of Israel’s destruction of the Amorite kings has flashed through the land. The Canaanites realize an irresistible power is accompanying Israel and they have no courage to face it; their hearts have “ ‘melted,’ ” Rahab says. As Henry points out, God has fulfilled a promise to Israel to “ ‘put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land’ ” (Deut. 11:25b).

But Rahab is more than a terrified Canaanite woman. In contemplating the coming of the Israelites, she has come to certain conclusions. First, “I know that the LORD has given you the land.’ ” She recognizes that any Canaanite resistance is going to be futile; Israel is going to prevail. Second, and most important, she has seen something about God Himself: “ ‘The LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.’ ” She no longer believes in a pantheon of regional or tribal gods, as is typical of Canaanite people of the time. Instead, she has come to see that Israel’s God is sovereign over all creation, both heaven and earth, and over Israelite and Canaanite alike. A work of the Spirit of God has occurred in her heart, and she has been awakened to belief in God. She has become one of God’s people.

Having acted out of her new-found faith, she begs the spies to be merciful to her and to her family, asking them to swear by the God they all worship. And the spies agree, on condition of secrecy.