The case of Rahab is one of deep interest. The Spirit of God uses it in the N. T. in two very different ways: in Heb. 11 to encourage believers; in James 2 to convict “vain” —that is, hollow, empty, foolish—professors. Hebrews shows us that faith is the only door of escape from certain and imminent judgment; James, that saving faith is never barren, neither is it ashamed to declare itself, as some would teach. Her interesting story comes in during the progress of events of momentous importance to this earth, but rather as a digression than as arising necessarily out of the course of the narrative. May the object of God in giving it not be lost on us.
Years before, the Lord had sent an arrow of conviction into the conscience of many a Canaanite. For centuries they had been going on wickedly, filling up their iniquity, and in her day the limits of the long-suffering of God had been reached. Rahab's description of the effect of the drying up of the water of the Red Sea for Israel, and of the more recent overthrow of their near neighbors, the Amorites on the other side of Jordan, enables us to realize something of the terror that had fallen upon them. The Spirit of the Lord was striving with men, evidently with her. But alas! it is possible to stifle convictions. Can we not all bear witness to this? Satan deceives. The heart deceives.
Appearances deceive. To sight Jericho was impregnable; perfectly able to hold out against any besieging appliances of that day, and Satan has the fatal power, if he cannot entirely dissipate fear, yet of giving such an outward appearance of security that men say “peace and safety” in spite of secret misgivings. Rahab's words are as descriptive of the state of things in this the boasted nineteenth century, as of her own time. What her own exercises of soul were, or how long, we are not told, but this is clear: she had no rest, and could have none, but from the Lord. But here all seemed hopeless. There was no word for her; no apparent way to get one; no link with His people; and, indeed, as looked at naturally, they were her enemies.
It is a dark picture: far darker the reality must have been to her as, day after day, the danger drew nearer.
Whatever the thought of Joshua in sending two men into Jericho, a mission of no small danger, as it proved, we are left in no uncertainty as to the purpose in their going, nor as to His leading them. How full of love, of tender compassion, He is for His creatures! How able, how willing to save, let the longing soul be where it may! It is a precious truth, and full of encouragement to those who have loved ones walled in, as it were, by place or circumstances, and bound in affliction and iron. With this bright (may we say, brilliant?) exhibition of the ways and resources of God, who need be cast down by difficulties or by seeming impossibilities? With God there are none: why then to those who believe in Him?
It is interesting, and not without instruction for us, that in Hebrews the men are called “spies,” and thus, to nature, foes; yet knowing this, the scripture says “she received them in peace.” Faith had caused her to change sides before she got assurance. In James they are called “messengers” (angeloi) and the Spirit notices her self-sacrificing care of them; for James had to teach that faith wrought with works, and how simple the truth as seen in her. To her they were the Lord's legates, not Joshua's, and their people were the people of Jehovah. Their then condition, without a possession, wanderers for years in the desert, did not deceive her. Jehovah was their God. “I know,” she said, “that the Lord hath given you the land.” And “the Lord your God is God in heaven above and in earth beneath.” She unfeignedly bows to the judgment on her own people. It was as truly on her and her kindred, and it was too late to attempt to better them. She begs life from God for herself and for them, otherwise it will be utter destruction. It was indeed a very real cry— “Deliver our lives from death,” and the ready reply of the men confirms the thought that the Lord used them as His messengers. “Our life for yours,” was the immediate and assuring answer, and her salvation was secure. They leave her a token— “this line of scarlet thread,” an apparently insignificant one, the meaning of which few discerned; but whoever did, whoever gathered by faith to the shelter of it, was saved.
This secret revealed to her by the men changed Rahab's life. Whatever her pursuits before, the terrors of the judgment that was corning, and the assurance of salvation for all beneath that God-given token, constrained her to use the little time remaining well; and the Lord worked with her, so that her father, her mother, her brethren, all her kindred, were delivered (Joshua 6:2323And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. (Joshua 6:23)). How absorbing this one chief object of her life! How varied the condition of those she sought to save! How simple the way of their salvation—faith in God as to this secret, “the scarlet line! “
Having left the token the messengers returned to the host. They were in the place of power. Rahab and those dear to her were in the place of safety. What then was her hope, her daily anticipation? Jericho, and all it could boast of, were gone to faith. Death was written on everything there, but Joshua was coming. The one who would visit with the unsparing judgments of God all outside the token was the savior of all beneath its shelter. Under it then, and true to those who gave it, her case is full of instruction and encouragement to all, however varied their experience, that are sheltered by the blood of Christ. There was then, as now, but one token, and the lineaments of living faith are so simple, yet so clearly delineated in her, that there is no need to trace them even for the youngest.
If we read verses 39, 40, of Hebrews 11 we shall find there is more than salvation from judgment. She is numbered with the patriarchs among the children of the resurrection (Luke 20:35, 3735But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: (Luke 20:35)
37Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. (Luke 20:37)), and is one that will be found to be Christ's when He comes, an heir of eternal glory (1 Corinthians 15:2323But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23)). Because of this, the Spirit of God in James, though writing to Jews who naturally would have very exalted thoughts of their father Abraham, puts her side by side with him, a beautiful illustration of Paul's word to the same people— “The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:12, 1312For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:12‑13)). There is no difference before Him One question it may be needful to answer. Is the emphasis that James puts upon her works, intended to throw the soul upon a self-searching examination to discover whether it be justified or not? Far from it. The severe language used by him is not addressed to an anxious soul. Such an one the Spirit would not describe as a “vain man” (verse 20); for the word implies, as has been said, an empty, hollow, foolish, person. Just one who says he believes (as thousands do in reciting the creed, “I believe” etc.), and yet there are absolutely no results in conduct. Will this hollow empty statement of his belief avail him? The contrast is readily seen. Rahab really believed that judgment on them all was certainly coming, and could know no rest till assured of deliverance. She cried earnestly for it. The “vain man” says over and over again, that he believes that Christ is coming to judge the living and the dead, yet is totally indifferent to it all, an indifference which even devils do not share (verse 19)—a very solemn fact.
May then all who really believe the gospel be encouraged and confirmed in their faith (be it ever so simple, and they ever so timid and anxious) by this most striking and faithful narrative, and may the indifferent professor of most solemn truths, the “vain man,” be warned by it. W.B.