People often miss the point when they talk about the narrative of Rahab in Jericho. They get too caught up in talking about her lie concerning the Hebrew spies that she was hiding, but the theme we are to focus on here is Rahab's growing faith.
When the spies were in her home, Rahab told them that she knew God had given the land of Canaan to the Israelites; and she confessed to them that all the people of the land were fearful of them, because they still remembered how the Lord had worked on their behalf at the Red Sea, forty years earlier. She acknowledged Jehovah to be the one true God, and she essentially denounced everything she had known as a Canaanite. Rahab knew her only hope was to turn to the God of Israel, and the spies responded to her with a promise of safety for her and her family.
Rahab ought to be remembered most of all for her faith. That's what the New Testament writers focused on when they mentioned her. This Canaanite woman was at the very bottom of society, but she illustrates for us how the Lord raises up the lowest sinners and turns them into saints. Sinners are to be brought into the Church so that they may be healed there and enter into a relationship with the only One Who can save them from their sins! |
