Old Testament · Conquest
Rahab
“For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”Joshua 2:11
Biography
Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute in Jericho who hid Israel's two spies on her roof and helped them escape. Her confession of faith — 'the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below' — is one of the most remarkable declarations of faith in the Old Testament, spoken by a Gentile outsider. She hung a scarlet cord from her window as the agreed sign of safety, and her entire household was spared when Jericho fell. She later married into the tribe of Judah and appears in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Lesson
Rahab's story is radical grace. She was a Gentile, a woman, and a prostitute — three categories that placed her outside every social and religious boundary of her day. Yet she is cited in Hebrews 11 as a hero of faith and appears in the bloodline of Jesus Christ. Her scarlet cord, like the blood on the doorposts at Passover, is a type of the blood of Christ that marks the saved. No one is too far outside for God to reach.