Chapter 2:12-17
Rahab saw that though Israel were a poor people wandering in the wilderness, not yet in possession of the land of their inheritance, nevertheless God was with them and they were His people. Though she was only a poor Gentile, yet grace brings her into the family of faith, like Ruth the Moabitess of a later day who could say, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” (Ruth 1:1616And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: (Ruth 1:16).) This was indeed beautiful faith; and Rahab, before any of Israel’s victories, already identifies herself with God and His people so that when the two spies came, she received them “with peace.”
She had confessed the Lord as “God in heaven above and in earth beneath.” (v. 11.) Then He must prevail; it would be hopeless to resist Him. He had given Israel the land, and the doom of those who opposed was certain. Daniel in his day read in “the handwriting on the wall” the fall of great Babylon, and for us now the written Word proclaims most solemnly that the judgment of the world draws nigh.
Having told the spies all she knew, Rahab’s faith now rises higher, and she puts before them what she desired. She sees in these two men the servants of the Lord, who cannot lie, and her faith claims the kindness of God. “Swear unto me by the Lord, that ye will also show kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token.” Her faith had grasped something at least of the blessed truth that Israel’s God was a God of mercy, and how unlike the gods of her people.
The life of those two men were her guarantee of salvation; thus she preserved them under the flax on her roof.
And we as believers now have the guarantee of our salvation in a Saviour who has not only died for us, but is risen from the dead, “raised again for our justification,” a living, glorious Saviour at God’s right hand.
Rahab brings God into the matter. She makes Him a party to this matter, the greatest transaction in her life, and what she asked for she got. God is equal to the greatest demand, and He responds to Rahab’s noble faith through His two servants: “And the men answered her, our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business.” Their life was the guarantee of hers, even as Christ’s is of ours.
How beautiful this all is! such faith given to a poor sinner in a city doomed to destruction! And Rahab does not merely ask for herself; she asks for others, those near and dear to her by nature’s ties. “Give me a true token,” she says; “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.” Her faith seems to say, There is nothing too much to claim from God. Does not this faith of Rahab who lived long, long ago, who had so little light compared to us, put many of us to shame?
ML-03/13/1977