Women in white raiment

by John Lemley

Rahab—Great Grace for Great Sinners—The Fall of Jericho—The Covenant Remembered—Deborah—Her Remarkable Courage—Sisera’s Iron Chariots Broken—The Daughter of Jephthah—Her Loving Devotion and Sacrifice—The Story of Naomi—Orpah’s Kiss—The Loving Ruth—Gleaning Among the Reapers—Her Rich Reward—Hannah—Her Consecration—Yearly Visits to Shiloh—Stitching Beautiful Thoughts into Samuel’s Coat—Her Beautiful Life.

After the death of Miriam at Kadesh, on the borders of Zin, and the death of Aaron on Mount Hor, and of Moses on lofty Pisgah, Joshua “sent out of Shittem two men to spy secretly, saying, Go, view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.”

The occupation of this woman has called out much comment, and many attempts have been made to clear her character of the stains of vice by affirming that she was only an inn-keeper, and not a harlot. No doubt there is much truth in this statement, for we can not entertain the thought that two pure-minded young men sent out by a leader like Joshua would pass by an inn and purposely seek an house of ill repute. It is also possible that to a woman of the age in which she lived, such a calling may have implied a far less deviation from the standard of morality than it does with us, with nearly two thousand years of Christian teaching. We must not forget that Rahab was a heathen; and the heathen knew very little of the simplest principles of truth and purity. In the first chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans he gives a life picture of pagan morals. Even among the polished Greeks, loyalty to their religion made personal purity impossible. The Canaanites were so vile that, in the emphatic language of Scripture, the land vomited them out. The glimpse we catch of Lot’s neighbors may show in what a cesspool of vice Rahab was brought up. But even if we judge this woman by our modern standards, and admit that she was all that is implied in the opprobrious term, the fact that she is listed among God’s elect women shows the wondrous power of divine grace. God can save a great sinner just as easy as a small one. Notwithstanding she carried the double disability, that of being a heathen and a great sinner, her story is told in full. She has honorable mention by the Apostle James as an illustration of the works that show strong faith; and by the spirit of inspiration in the Epistle to the Hebrews, giving her a place among the mighty heroes and heroines who wrought marvels through confidence in God.

At the time when the Israelites were encamped in Shittem, ready to cross the Jordan and enter the land of promise, Jericho was the strongest fortified city in Canaan, and, as the key to Western Palestine, commanded the two mountain passes which led into the land that was to be possessed. It was to be taken; but how? Joshua sent two of his most trusted men to spy out the land, remembering, no doubt with much trepidation, the failure of forty years before, which made them go back and die in the desert.

The life of the spies, the success of the enterprise, and the courage their report would give the Israelites, all turned on the faith and skill of Rahab. She saved to God’s people the battle they had lost forty years before. No wonder that Hebrew writers have thrown the glamor of romance over her story.

Her house was situated on the wall, probably near the city gate, so as to be convenient for persons coming in and going out of Jericho. She seems not only to have kept an inn for wayfaring men, but also to have been engaged in the manufacture of linen and the art of dyeing, for which the Phœnicians were early famous, since we find the flat roof of her house covered with stalks of flax, put there to dry, and a stock of scarlet or crimson line in her house, a circumstance which, coupled with the mention of Babylonish garments as among the spoils of Jericho, indicates the existence of a trade in such articles between Phœnicia and Mesopotamia. It also appears she had a father and mother, brothers and sisters, who, if they were not living in the same house with her, were dwelling in Jericho.

Traders coming from Mesopotamia, or Egypt to Phœnicia, would frequently pass through Jericho, situated as it was near the fords of the Jordan, and, according to the customs of the times, these travelers would seek a public inn.

These men, coming and going, would naturally enough carry the news of current events with them. Rahab therefore had opportunity to be well informed with regard to the events of the Exodus. As we learn from her own story, she had heard of the passage through the Red Sea, of the utter destruction of Sihon and Og, and of the irresistible progress of the Israelitish host. The effect upon her mind had been what one would not have expected in a person of her way of life. It led her to a firm faith in Jehovah as the true God, and to the conviction that He purposed to give Canaan to the Israelites. She may have thought long and deeply on these strange events, and, possibly, her better nature may have loathed the vices of her people, in which she herself had become involved, and longed for the pure worship of the wonder-working God of whom she had heard.

When, therefore, the two spies sent out by Joshua, who must have been men of moral character and worthy of so important a commission, came to Jericho, no doubt they were divinely directed to her house, who alone, of the whole population, was friendly to their cause. Her heart, at all events, was prepared to receive the message with which they intrusted her, and she gave them the information they sought. And such faith had she in the purposes of God to give the land to the hosts of Joshua that she made a covenant with these representatives of his army, to save her and her family when the city fell into their hands.

The coming of these spies, it seems, was quickly known, and the king of Jericho, having received information of it while at supper, according to Josephus, sent that very evening to require her to deliver them up. It is very likely that, her house being a public one, some one who resorted there may have seen and recognized the spies, and at once reported the matter to the authorities. But not without awakening Rahab’s suspicions, and she was courageous enough to hide them under the flax on the roof, and throw the officers off their suspicion, while she let the Hebrews down over the wall and hurried them away to the mountains, to stay till the hunt was given up and the guards had come back from the fords of the Jordan, thus allowing them to escape across the river to their camp.