[Rahab said] “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.”
– Joshua 2:12
Rahab appears in Scripture in an unexpected place and with an unexpected reputation. Here in Joshua 2, as Israel prepares to enter the Promised Land, Joshua sends two spies into the city of Jericho. There they encounter Rahab, a Canaanite woman and a prostitute – someone who, from Israel’s perspective, would seem far outside the circle of God’s people.
Yet Rahab had been listening. She’d heard about the Lord parting the Red Sea and defeating Israel’s enemies, and had come to believe that the God of Israel was the true God of heaven and earth. So when the spies arrive at her house, Rahab hides them from the authorities and helps them escape. In return, she asks them to spare her and her family when Israel conquers the city.
What’s remarkable about the story is that God doesn’t just use Rahab to protect the spies – He saves her as well. And the mission she assists becomes the very means by which she and her household are rescued from the destruction of Jericho.
Rahab goes from being an outsider under judgment to someone who’s welcomed among God’s people. And in time, she even becomes part of the family line through which the Messiah would come.
The account quietly reminds us that God’s saving purposes often reach people we might never expect.
As Christ followers, we sometimes surround ourselves with people who look like us, think like us, and live like us. Even within the church, we often settle into comfortable circles. There’s nothing inherently wrong with having familiar friendships, but the story of Rahab gently challenges our tendencies to stay within the social confines of what feels safe to us.
If God can use a simple interaction between two Israelite spies and a Canaanite woman to bring someone into His saving grace, maybe we shouldn’t be afraid to get to know people who are different from us. The kindness we show through the conversations we have and the example we live may become the very means God uses to open someone’s eyes to His mercy.
You just never know when an ordinary encounter might become someone else’s first glimpse of the love of Christ.
Former Blackout Artist 