Skeletons in Jesus' Closet: Rahab (Joshua 2:1-21)
A Prostitute in Church

By: Mark Lowenstein
June 22, 2008

You may be wondering, of all the women in the Bible, why have I chosen to bring a prostitute into this service this morning. You know all those bracelets that say, "WWJD" ("What Would Jesus Do?")? "What would Jesus do at a service like this?" I think he'd go out into the streets and invite a few prostitutes to come. So it was really Jesus' idea. After all, she was his great, great, great, great grandmother. The Church treats her like a skeleton in Jesus' closet just like Tamar whom we met last week and like Ruth who we will meet next.

Getting Our Bearings:
First, we need to get our bearings. Where are we? If you were at a mall, you would see a red “arrow” tape pinpointing that says "you are here." So where are we now in the story? You are here on the east side of the Jordan River and the very beginning of the book of Joshua. The people who had been slaves in Egypt have wandered for 40 years in a very lengthy route. They now are trying to come into the Promised Land from the east.

Now it was Joshua who had been called by God to lead the Hebrew people across the river. But it wasn't as simple as crossing the river! There was a problem. "The Promised Land," was not deserted. Canaanites, Jebusites, Edomites, and Hittites already lived there.

It wasn't simple for Joshua, so he had to send out some spies: a reconnaissance mission. "Go into the land. How strong are their troops? How big are their cities? How thick are the walls?" The spies slipped inside the city.

Meeting Rahab
This is so interesting to me - they stopped at the house of Rahab the prostitute. Now was this God's idea or was it their own longing? Or perhaps it was just that this was the first house that they came to? For you see Rahab lived so far on the edge of the city that the text tells us that she lived in the wall - in the place between "insider" and "outsider." Or perhaps the spies knew they would hear soldiers' stories at the house of a prostitute. Perhaps they knew that they would get the information they needed at the prostitute's house. So they spent the night. Actually, the Hebrew text says they "lay there." (Well, that is all the text says!)

King sent orders to Rahab. Did the king know her? In what way? Checking on the two spies and bring them out. Who is Rahab to defy the king? Her life would be worth little or nothing if she disobeyed.

Rahab hid the two spies on her roof. Rahab had to create a story. Of course, she would say that a lot of people (men) did come her (she’s a prositute after all). They just left before the gate closed.

I love this woman. She’s a crafty one! Like her sisters, Shiphrah and Puah in the book of Exodus 1 (verses 15 & 19). They were midwives. They also deceived the king of Egypt. They refused to kill the Hebrew baby boys. Obviously, the king knows nothing about “birthing”! They would explain, “Oh, your majesty," they said, "the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous. The babies just pop out of them before we can even get there." "Oh," he said, "I see." So with their courageous deception, they saved the boys, at least for a while.

What if the king's men did not believe Rahab or the two midwives? What if they searched her house? What gave people courage to lie when the Gestapo came knocking at the door asking if there were any Jews ("No, we haven't seen any.") even though they were now in the attic or under the floorboards? Sometimes it is necessary to bear false witness to save our neighbor.

But these men were not Rahab's neighbors: they were outsiders to her. She was an outsider to them. Rahab had not stood at the foot of Sinai, nor had she been numbered among the tribes of Israel. Yet she dared to make this bold confession of faith: "The Lord your God is the Lord of heaven above and on earth below." How did she know this? She even had word about what had happened at the Red Sea. How could she have heard? How did she know this? Or could it be that the God of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar had also spoken to Rahab? Could God have been places we have never visited?

Rahab asked that the two spies promise her to save her and her family.

Give me a sign of good faith that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to me." She makes a bargain; she closes the deal. Then she lets the spies down by a rope through her window in the wall. "Go toward the hill country," she tells them. But what sign will they give her?

"Tie a crimson (red) cord outside this window," the men tell her. Could she trust them? Would anybody bother to tell the army to save the life of a prostitute? She sent them away and they departed. Then she tied the crimson cord in the window.

This blood-red sign of deliverance like the sign of Passover, the blood of the lamb on the door post. Now this woman, who was not among the chosen, has been given this blood-red sign. Was she only scheming - or did she fully believe that the God of heaven and earth was also her God? Later on, when the people cross over the Jordan, we wait. Will the army remember? Will the spies have told anyone about this woman in the wall? In the sixth chapter we read:

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house [notice she no longer has a name], and bring the woman out of it and all who belong to her; as you swore to her." So Rahab and her family were rescued.

The Isrealites burned down the city, and everything in it. But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since.

Insiders and Outsiders
Like the Hebrews saved by the sign of blood on the door posts (Exodus), Rahab was saved by the blood-red cord tied at her window. The forces of death had passed over her house, and the walls between "insider" and "outsider" fell away in her presence.

I think this is why Rahab is here - she is the very first person the Hebrew people meet in the Promised Land. She is there to remind us of the terrible danger of dividing the world into between "insiders" and "outsiders".

Under the many stories of battle, under those songs about the walls that came a-tumbling down, Rahab stands at her window in the wall. She is remembered for centuries. In the very first chapter of the very first book of the New Testament in Matthew's gospel, there's a long genealogy of Jesus' ancestors that we almost always skip over. So-and so begat, and so-and so- The odd thing about Matthew's list is the four very strange women who appear there: Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Rahab. There she is an ancestor of Jesus. All of these women suspect in one way or another. At least two of them foreigners. There is Rahab the prostitute, named in the genealogy of Jesus. One of Jesus' great-great-great-grandmothers. An outsider counted as one of Jesus' great, great, great-grandmothers!

The New Testament starts out: Don't forget that red thread in the window. The red thread is woven throughout the tapestry that tells God's story. If, if weren't for that red thread, some people might begin to see the Bible as only a story of conquest and holy war. But the red thread draws us to the window where we must see Rahab's face. She bids us to be attentive to those who live in the margins of life: those who live in the walls of the city, under its bridges and in the doorways. Rahab pleads with those who would conquer any land in the name of God - for she knows that the Lord is God of heaven and earth and will not be held captive by any nation.

Stand for Justice
These women in Israel are not special, they are not saints, we can do similar things. Remember what a difference you can make. Remember Shiphrah and Puah. They dared to say no to governing authorities that meant the death of children. To save the children, Shiphrah and Puah did that and then called upon three other sisters some years later when the pharaoh decided that if they were not going to kill these babies at birth then he was going drown them in the river. Three women came to the river that day. One was the daughter of the pharaoh. Two were Hebrew slaves, a mother and a sister. Together these three women plotted across race, class, and religion. They took that little baby (Moses) and saved his life.

And then Rahab lying - not just to save her life but to erase that terrible border between "insider" and "outsider," to remind us that when we enter the land of promise this is God's calling to us: to erase those boundaries between "insider" and "outsider." She risked her life to do that. Just realize what these women we have heard of this evening managed to do - those three women at the river, saved the life of Moses and, thereby, changed human history.

And Us?
God is counting on us. The voices of hatred in the world are so loud, the cries of mourning never silenced. But there, Rahab is at the window, tying again the blood-red cord, singing her revolutionary song. She is remembered as Rahab the Prostitute. Little things have big consequences - what will we do for justice this week? What will we do to see beyond distinctions of race and class and religion? In this season of Christ's coming, how will we follow his example, and those of his ancestors?
Amen.