Rahab Contra Mundum

Contra Mundum is Latin for “Against the World.” How the church father Athanasius described his situation, “Athanasius contra mundum”

I. Jericho was a city with

• As Israel entered Canaan, the nations were terrified. The Hebrews appeared unbeatable.
• Numbers 21, Moses asked the king of Sihon to allow the nation passage. He refused and instead sent troops. Israel destroyed him. (Num. 21:23)
• In Numbers 25, the King of Moab (Balak) hired a gentile prophet named Balaam to curse Israel. But he was only able to bless them.
• Finally, at Shittim, the Canaanites sent immoral women in to the Hebrew camp to entice Israel into adultery and idolatry. God punished the nation, and when Joshua begins, the nation is still at Shittim.
• Word spread: These people can’t be beat!
• Jericho is called an ‘ir (city) thirteen times. ‘ir can mean: A large urban city, a village, a citadel. In the case of Jericho it appears to be a fortress that guards the highlands.
• The Hebrew word used for “house of a prostitute” can mean “innkeeper” or “tavern.” There is tension as Hebrew spies coming from Shittim enter the house of a prostitute; are the Hebrews back to their old ways of immorality? The text itself is full of suggestive overtones: They came into her house, lodged, the men lie down, and she is asked if she “knows” them. (Adam knew eve.) All these word plays in Hebrew escalate the tension.
• The scene plays out like what happened to the angels at Sodom:

At Sodom: At Jericho

Two Angels Two Spies

Taken in by Lot Taken in by Rahab

Men gather at door Troops gather at door.

Judgment by sulfur Judgment by fire.

Lot pulled out. Rahab pulled out.

II. Why did she do what she did?

1.

2.

• Joshua 2:8 / Exodus 15:14-16.
• Deuteronomy 11:25
• Proverbs 1:7

3.

• Hebrews 11:31, Joshua is not in the hall of faith. But Rahab is.
• Joshua 2:11 is worded the same as the ten commandments, Deuteronomy 5:8. For Moses he wrote it in stone. For Rahab, he wrote it on her heart.
• What’s really going on? God changed their mission! Two in the Bible is the number to bear witness. (In Genesis, 2 angels bear witness to the evil of Sodom. In Revelation 11, two angels bear witness against Jerusalem. Here two messengers bear witness against Jericho. But they also bear witness to Rahab that God will save her if she puts her hope in Him.)

III. What did God do? He Raised her from the dead!

1. God gave her

2. God gave her

• Joshua 6:26, she was spared.
• Matthew 1:5 she married Salmon.
• Numbers 2:3 says that the Salmon’s father, Nashon, was the leader of the tribe of Judah. Some commentators say that Rahab effectively became a Hebrew princess.

3. God gave

• Joshua 2:17-21: She is given a scarlet cord to tie to her window. It is reminiscent of the Hebrews putting blood over the door frames at Passover.
• The rope is a tangible form of God’s promise.