Rahab’s Lies

The story of Rahab is filled with sterling lessons, but one troubling issue stands out—her untruths. There is absolutely no dispute that she lied. As Matthew Henry says, “It is plain that she deceived the officers that examined her.” She had hidden the men, but she said they had left the city. She had taken them up to her roof, but she said she did not know where they had gone. Maybe, just maybe, there is a grain of truth in her statement that she did not know where the men were from. That may have been the case when they first arrived. But to assume that she learned the spies’ identity when the king’s men said “ ‘Bring out the men who have come to you’ ” and then acted spontaneously to hide them is to strain credulity.

Of course, the most vexing problem with Rahab’s lies is that the rest of Scripture seems to ignore them. Rahab, the lying prostitute, actually makes the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11, where verse 31 says, “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.” And James goes even further, saying Rahab was “justified” by her conduct with the Israelite spies. He is saying that all Rahab’s actions to aid and abet the spies’ mission (including, by implication, her lies) serve to demonstrate the truth of her faith in Christ. Furthermore, she receives the honor of appearing in the genealogical line that leads from Abraham to David and eventually to Jesus (Matt. 1:1–16). Nowhere does Scripture condemn her lies or even question their propriety.

What are we to make of this woman’s behavior and its biblical treatment? And what implications should we draw for our own day-to-day ethics? These questions do not yield easy answers. But Henry challenges us with these words: “There is that in it [the story of Rahab] which it is not easy to justify [the lies], and yet it must be justified, or else it could not be so good a work as to justify her.” Therefore, we will spend the next week studying this issue using messages from Dr. R.C. Sproul’s teaching series Hard Sayings of the Bible, Making Tough Moral Decisions, and Christian Ethics. Beginning with an examination of God’s attitude toward truth and moving to an exploration of the situation in which Rahab spoke her falsehoods, we will seek to understand why Rahab’s false words were proper.