I never learned much about Rahab.  Schaeffer points out a number of things here that lift her up to the same place James the Apostle.  James sets her next to Abraham, who God, in Scripture, set before all as a man of faith.  You will see why as you study this section.  

How marvelous is the saving work of Christ.  Have you ever wondered what leads to a life of harlotry?  Imagine the darkness and the level of self-worth Rahab must have felt at times.  And then, salvation appears at your door.  You believe.  You are rescued.  You are given a new life and recorded in the annals of history for eternity.  Certainly, God is the rewarder of the one who believes in Him (Heb 1:6, 31).  

What are you doing today that is the result of your faith in God?  Rahab puts me to shame.

Rev 2:17 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

What follows are fragmentary pieces of Francis Schaeffer’s commentary Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History picked out for my own edification and direction. I am interested most in finding the conditions God gave for taking and possessing His land. Also, what can we learn from this story of conquest? To go to the start of these lessons click here.

The Scarlet Cord

In Joshua 2 we also find the interesting story of the scarlet cord. This cord, on which Rahab let the spies escape from her house, was also to be the mark upon her house to show that she was different from all the rest. Joshua 2:21 says that the spies departed, and she hung the scarlet line in her window. It seems to me that this indicates that she did not want time to pass without that mark upon her house. So we can imagine her, after she let the spies down, pulling up the rope and tying it to her window.

In the preaching of the Christian Church, all the way back to Clement of Rome (perhaps earlier, but we do not know), this has been taken as a sign of the blood of Christ, the Lamb. One should not be dogmatic about it because the Bible does not explicitly make this connection; nevertheless, many in the Church have emphasized over the centuries that the scarlet cord was a mark of something beyond itself.

Because she placed this mark upon her house, she dwelt in safety. This clearly paralleled the Passover lamb. The Israelites killed the Passover lamb, put its blood on their houses, and then were perfectly safe as the angel of death passed over Egypt. The mark of the blood covered them and their households. The Passover lamb, of course, was looking forward to the coming Messiah. So there is, after all, a parallel between the cord and the blood of the Lamb.

We can imagine Rahab rushing out and gathering all her family into her house upon the city wall. We can imagine her going through the city and calling out, “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Come under the mark of the scarlet cord!” Lot did the same thing in Sodom, you remember, but without success. He went throughout the city trying to gather in his family, including his sons-in-law. But they refused and laughed at him; so they died in the city’s destruction. In the days of Noah, those who were gathered into the ark were safe. In Jericho, Rahab’s family, gathered in the house marked by the scarlet cord, were safe.

We see the spiritual element of the covenant blessing flowing on. When the children of Israel were about to leave Egypt, they were given the blood of the Passover lamb under which to be safe. When the people were about to enter the land, they were met by a different, but parallel, sign—a red cord hanging from the window of a believer.

Faith in Action

The Bible expressly says that Rahab demonstrated her faith by her works. The spies did not take her away with them. She had to remain in the kingdom of the Amorites between the time when she declared her allegiance to the living God and the time when judgment fell. In Joshua 2 we are reminded forcefully that there was a king in Jericho; and if he had known what had occurred, undoubtedly he would have killed Rahab in the cruelest fashion he could have thought of. “And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house” (Josh. 2:3). Here was war—war between the king of Jericho and the king of the Jews; that is, between the king of Jericho and God.

In the book of James, Rahab is the only person paralleled to Abraham: “Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works, when he had offered Isaac, his son, upon the altar?… In like manner also was not Rahab, the harlot, justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” (Jas. 2:21, 25).^[1] To properly exegete the book of James, we need to understand that Abraham had faith, but it was a faith open to demonstration. In fact, it was demonstrated at a tremendous cost: he was willing to trust God and to offer his son. Rahab, too, had a faith that had teeth in it, structure to it, strength in it. She was willing to suffer loss to demonstrate that her faith was valid.

This woman Rahab stood alone in faith against the total culture which surrounded her—something none of us today in the Western world has ever yet had to do.^[2] For a period of time she stood for the unseen against the seen, standing in acute danger until Jericho fell. If the king had ever found out what she had done, he would have become her chief enemy and would have executed her.

Just before the Israelites came out of Egypt, they sacrificed the Passover lamb. They did it “with loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand” (Ex. 12:11), and they became pilgrims. One cannot partake of the Passover lamb without being ready to see the world as a place of pilgrimage and war.^[3] Rahab is an even greater illustration of our position in regard to this, because until Jericho fell she lived as a pilgrim surrounded by her old alien culture.

This is exactly how the Christian lives, and Rahab is a tremendous example for us. Though you and I have stepped from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, we are still surrounded by a culture controlled by God’s great enemy, Satan. We must live in it from the moment we accept Christ as our Savior until judgment falls. We, too, are encompassed by one who was once our king, but is now our enemy. It is just plain stupid for a Christian not to expect spiritual warfare while he lives in enemy territory.

Rahab: Ancestor of Christ

But there is even more to Rahab’s story of the spiritual continuity of the covenant. Joshua 6:25 says of Rahab: “She dwelleth in Israel even unto this day.” She lived the rest of her life as a citizen among God’s people. Not only that, she married among these people and became an ancestor of Jesus Christ!

Study the genealogy of Jesus as Matthew records it: “And Nahshon begot Salmon; and Salmon begot Boaz of Rahab; and Boaz begot Obed of Ruth; and Obed begot Jesse; and Jesse begot David, the king” (Matt. 1:4–6).^[4] David, of course, was a forebear of Christ.

Rahab’s position is mentioned by implication in the book of Ruth: “Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon, and Salmon begot Boaz [of Rahab, as Matthew says], and Boaz begot Obed, and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David” (Ruth 4:18–22). (See also the parallel in 1 Chronicles 2, especially 2:11–12.)

The book of Numbers provides a key to Nahshon’s identity. When the tabernacle was raised in the days of Moses (about thirty-nine years before the events involving Rahab), twelve princes came, one from each tribe, and made a special offering. The first one who came was of the tribe of Judah: “And he that offered his offering the first day was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah” (Num. 7:12). So Nahshon was a great prince of the tribe of Judah, and his son, Salmon, married Rahab. Chronologically, it fits; the timing is just right. Isn’t that tremendous? The harlot who became a believer became the wife of a prince of Judah!

Unhappily, some people ask, “But is it fitting that this woman should become a princess and an ancestor of Christ?” I would reply with all the strength that is in me: it is most fitting! In having been unfaithful to the Creator, is not the whole human race a harlot? Indeed, it is most fitting that Rahab should stand in the ancestral line of Christ. Matthew mentions five women in the genealogy he records, and moral charges were brought against every one of them. Jesus Christ did not come from a sinless human line. All, including Mary, needed the Savior. Even she said, “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). All the men and all the women in the ancestral line of Christ needed Christ as their Savior.

After all, Rahab did not stand with the people of God as an unclean harlot. She had come under the blood of the coming Christ; she was the harlot cleansed. Is Rahab any worse than we? If it is not fitting that she should be the ancestress of Christ, is it fitting that we should be the bride of Christ? Woe to anybody who has such a mentality as to be upset by Rahab! Such a person does not understand sin, the horribleness of the whole race turning into a prostitute against the living Creator.

We all stand in Rahab’s place in the sight of the holy God. Probably we are even worse, for she had little knowledge. There is probably no one reading this book who has as little knowledge as Rahab had when she made her step of faith. We are all sinners. Each one of us is like this woman living up there on the wall. Each of us deserves only one thing—the flaming judgment of God. If it were not for the spiritual portion of the covenant of grace and Christ’s death on Calvary’s cross, we would all be lost.

If we do not cast ourselves upon Christ, and His finished work, then we are not as wise as that harlot in a heathen land.

We are under the judgment of God and will stay under it until we do what Rahab did. She believed. She came under the work of the real Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ. And she passed from the midst of unredeemed humanity to redeemed humanity on the basis of His blood.

So it always is. Jesus Christ stands before all men in one of two capacities (there is no third): either he is Savior or he is judge.^[5] When he stood as captain of the Lord’s host, for one woman and her household he was Savior; for the rest of Jericho, he was judge.

Let those of us who have believed in Christ ask God to help us so that our works will prove our faith, even if this means a threat to us, even if this places us in as much danger as it did Rahab. By God’s grace, may our faith have such a structure that even if it is at great cost, even if we are facing danger, we stand fast. Many thousands of our brothers and sisters in Christ are this day facing danger. The great persecutions did not just occur in the past in the land of Caesar. In North Korea, Africa, Vietnam, Laos and other places, Christians are being killed for being Christians. And many more are not always physically killed, but “killed” by being alienated from their own families.

It is hazardous to be a Christian in an age like ours, in a culture that is increasingly alienated from God. But if we have believed, even if we are surrounded and threatened by the kingdom of our previous king, the evil one, may our faith be like Rahab’s, observable by courage and by works. Rahab blazes abroad as a tremendous example for all of us.

Questions & Notes

1. In the book of James, Rahab is the only person paralleled to _________. ↑

2. Rahab stood alone in _________ against the total culture which surrounded her. ↑

3. One cannot partake of the Passover lamb without being ready to see the world as a place of pilgrimage and _________ . ↑

4. Study the genealogy of Jesus as Matthew records it: “And Nahshon begot Salmon; and Salmon begot _________ of Rahab. ↑

5. Jesus Christ stands before all men in one of two capacities (there is no third): either he is _________ or he is _________. ↑

Click on the “Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History” tag below to see all the posts in this series. To go to the start of this series click here.