Joshua 2 & 6
How fitting in the order of the book before us, is the place which this gospel history occupies.
We see in Rahab a monument of mercy, and a pattern for us, who learn in her, that salvation reaches to the chief of sinners.
In common with her townspeople, Rahab had heard the message of coming judgment, and she with them had feared exceedingly, accrediting in the pilgrim Israelites Jehovah’s mighty host. But, as judgment delayed its march, the proud men of Jericho counted it slackness, and hardened themselves in their iniquity. Rahab partook not of their spirit, for, in the interval of delay, she set her mind upon deliverance. When we find souls trembling today lest they should be destroyed with this wicked world, and tomorrow, when their trembling has ceased, pursuing their wicked paths, they remind us of the iron which grows harder and harder by heating in the furnace until, at length, the blows of the hammer will scarcely leave an impression. But judgment must come, and the hardened sinner will have to prove it, even as did the defiant men of Jericho.
Let us follow the two spies. The long threatened judgment is at the walls of the city, its heralds enter it, and are received into Rahab’s house. She hails them as messengers of mercy, but her townspeople guided by their king seek their life.
The word from on high is judgment to the world, “Now is the judgment of this world”; but to the individual sinner the message is deliverance. To each house, to each sinner, where the herald of God comes, the salutation is “Peace,” peace through the blood of Christ, and all who accept the message of God are saved from the wrath to come. Woe, indeed, is it to such as reject God’s message of mercy, for thereby they close upon themselves the only door of escape. Such as feel their need, and own the just judgment of God upon this wicked world, hail His messengers with joy. It was Rahab’s faith that saved her, and Jericho’s unbelief was its doom. “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:3131By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. (Hebrews 11:31)).
To look back and behold the destruction of Jericho, and the salvation of Rahab out of it, is deeply solemn and instructive to us, who live in these last days of God’s long suffering. Let us stand then with Rahab and the two spies upon the flat roof of her house, and looking around learn a lesson for our own times. Mark the development of the city, its recent improvements, its great and high walls, and its brazen gates. As since the creation of the world, the mountains stand in their places. As heretofore, the valleys are golden with ripening corn, the hillsides purple with fruitful vines; for, observe this, it is the time of harvest. The ancient Jordan flows on, her banks covered with deep waters, as if proudly saying, I am a barrier to the enemy’s approach. The sun, which they worship, calm in the heavens, sinks beneath the mountains, shedding its rich glow over the valleys, and the people kiss their hand to it. The business of the city, eating flesh and drinking wine, marrying and giving in marriage, birth and death, go on as in former generations. The scoffers in the city say, the tale of judgment has grown old, forty long years ago we heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for these people who claim this land, and there is nothing to fear.
The testimony of the Lord’s coming has grown old to the world. The Son of Man coming from the heavens in flaming fire, and the overthrow of the order of things as they now exist upon the earth, do not agree with human notions of stability. “Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” This Word of God went forth more than eighteen hundred years ago. Judge not, then, by sight, be not willingly ignorant of the flood, or of the burning of Sodom and the cities of the plain, for if the judgment tarries, it is only for this one reason; “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)). Are we of the City of Destruction, or do we wait for God’s Son from heaven, who hath delivered His people from the wrath to come? It matters not in what part of the city we dwell, be it in Morality Street or in the Religious Quarters; it matters not how richly our house be furnished with good deeds, for if we are of the world we are of that place upon which God has pronounced judgment. Men may say, “peace and safety,” but while they so speak sudden destruction will come upon them, and they shall not escape. The men of Jericho may scoff at Israel marching round their walls, until, astonished and overwhelmed, they perish in its overthrow.
Rahab’s heart is full, for the word of Jehovah is reality to her. By faith she understands that Jericho’s days are numbered, its progress at an end, and the last moments of its hour of grace at hand. Her thoughts are not with the townspeople’s, her spirit is separate from her native city, she hopes for life elsewhere. In the two spies that are with her on the housetop she beholds the messengers of the “God in heaven above and on earth beneath,” and thus their testimony is mightier to her than all the evidence of outward things. To these men she unburdens her soul, and, if she may, casts in her lot with God’s Jericho-hated people.
Rahab was by nature and by practice a child of wrath, even as others. In common with the sinners of her city she had no title to God’s salvation – none, but she believed and confessed that the Lord’s judgment was upon her; she owned that the land in which she dwelt belonged no longer to her people, but to God’s people – “I know that the Lord hath given you the land.” She owned that the judgment was Jehovah’s – “Jehovah your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath.” Shut up to the terror of this mighty God what was she to do? “Let him take hold of My strength, that He may make peace with Me; and He shall make peace with Me” (Isa. 27:55Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. (Isaiah 27:5)). Rahab appealed to Jehovah’s kindness. She trusted in Him and cried for mercy, “Save me or I perish”; this was her burden. Death all around her, death in her, what else could satisfy her save life? “Deliver our lives from death.”
Rahab’s antecedents, perhaps, account for her telling the falsehood to the king’s messengers. This is a matter for reflection. How frequently do we observe some evil tendency, some hateful habit or temper, cling to even earnest believers! A low moral tone is not changed to an exalted one in a day; no, not even by conversion.
The sign that life was Rahab’s, was a token outside herself. It was the scarlet line by which the spies escaped from Jericho; and God was satisfied with the token. Beneath its shelter there might have been anxious fears, or, possibly, strong faith, as the army marched round the city, but it covered all. This line of thread tells us of the blood of Christ, the precious “token” which speaks of God’s perfect satisfaction on account of sin. By that precious blood, God can be just and the justifier, for the blood has met His claims on account of sin, and has satisfied His righteous demands. And now God justifies him that believes in His Son from all things.
But Rahab had more than this scarlet line, she had the two living men as her security. Vain would have been the thread bound in her window had the spies not reached the camp! These men had vouched their life for hers, “Our life for yours”; their life was her life. And does not this tell us of the Saviour’s assuring words, “because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:1919Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. (John 14:19)). It is His life which is the believer’s life, a life beyond the claims and power of death. Jesus, the Son of God, is the Eternal Life. “He that hath the Son hath life” (1 John 5:1212He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12)). By the death of Christ the life of man was judicially ended, and in the life of the ascended One the feeblest believer lives. May you, dear reader, believe in the name of His Son, and have eternal life, for in Adam “we be all dead men.” We, who believe, are removed from the judgment of the world; for, since Christ is our life, we are no longer of the city of destruction, but of those who wait for the coming of the Lord to take us out of the world.
What a bright pattern of care for perishing sinners does Rahab offer to us! How earnest was her entreaty for her father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all their kindred! She spent her opportunity in “bringing home” many, and none of them were left to perish in the overthrow of Jericho.
She herself was a testimony of mercy, and the scarlet line in her window the evidence of faith. Pointing to the scarlet line, she might tell them, that by it the men left the city, and that they had pledged their life for hers, and for the lives of all who remained beneath its shelter.
Let us now turn to boastful, unbelieving Jericho. The Jordan rolls back, and God’s hosts surround it. It shuts itself up in iron determination, allowing none to go out and daring any to enter. Formed in divinely-chosen array, God’s host encompasses it. The trumpeters are there, as if anticipating “the acceptable year of the Lord.” To Jericho a vain sound, fit only for taunt and ridicule. What! shall men marching round and round overthrow a kingdom! Now comes the seventh day, with its sevenfold herald notes, with its stirring in the camp, and its “getting up early.” It is the last day for Rahab’s house to offer shelter. Before eventide the people of Jericho must perish.
All is silence. The city is encompassed. The captain of the host gives the word. The shout of victory rends the unbelieving hearts. Jericho’s walls totter and fall. It is sudden destruction. The sword devours old and young, rich and poor. The city is destroyed by fire. The pride of Jericho is no more.
Reader, yet once more the question, Are you of the world? This very world is a “city of destruction.” Behold in Jericho’s fate its certain end.
But Rahab, where is she? Safe, saved? She was safe the moment she believed. The sinner is saved immediately when he believes. Alive in the midst of death? Yes, life was hers when the spies bonded their life for hers. “And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.”